MY ACCOUNT
Liverpool should give Mohamed Salah “whatever he wants” to sign a new contract, according to Jose Enrique.
Salah has had a magnificent start to the season and moved onto six Premier League goals for the campaign with a sensational solo strike against Manchester City on Sunday.
The 29-year-old’s efforts, which also included an assist for Sadio Mane’s opener, was not enough to propel Liverpool to victory, however, with champions City twice fighting back in a thrilling 2-2 draw.
Liverpool were not particularly active in the recent transfer window, with Ibrahima Konate their only major addition – the centre-back joining from RB Leipzig – while Georginio Wijnaldum joined Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer.
However, the Reds did move to secure the futures of some of Jurgen Klopp’s key players, with Alisson, Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson and Jordan Henderson signing new deals.
Salah, though, was not among those players. While he has shown no signs of wanting to leave, the Egypt forward has less than two years to run on his current contract.
It is a situation that Jose Enrique, who played for Liverpool between 2011 and 2016, insists the club must swiftly rectify.
He told Stats Perform: “Him scoring [against City] doesn’t surprise me. Obviously when you watch it, you’re like ‘wow what a goal’, but he’s made a few of them already at this level, very good goals.
“He doesn’t surprise me any more. I don’t know what he’s asking for from Liverpool to renew his contract, but I say give him whatever he wants, because in my opinion at the moment, take [Lionel] Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo because of the history they have and everything like that, but you tell me one player at the moment in the world of football that I would take if I was manager and I would say Salah.
“Definitely I would say Salah, he’s unbelievable. People forget that he’s not actually a forward, he’s a winger really.
“He plays a little bit as a forward as well but he’s a winger actually but making these kind of numbers. Today, another assist and a goal. What am I going to say about him? Liverpool sign a new contract, tie him down and let’s get it over with, definitely.”
Liverpool may ultimately consider themselves unfortunate to twice throw away their lead, but City dominated the first half and could have been out of sight had they shown more cutting edge in the final third.
“I think the first half wasn’t good enough from Liverpool,” acknowledged Jose Enrique.
“Then obviously the second half, we perform much better but the game overall, seen as a fan, not a Liverpool supporter or Manchester City supporter, as a fan, I think it was a very, very nice game to watch.
“Obviously I’m a Liverpool fan as well myself now, so it was a fair result, but with the first half that we’ve done we could have easily lost this game.
“Actually we got in front twice with Mane first and then with Salah as well, and then getting the goals and then [City] getting back into the game was a bit unfair. But then when you think overall, to be honest, a draw I think is a good point.
“We should have won this game, at home, but against City it is always difficult, but definitely I’m happy with the point because of the way we performed in the first half.
“I think in the second half we were great but in the first half we were really, really bad in my opinion.”
