Arne Slot has described Mo Salah as a ‘physical freak’ to explain why Liverpool gave the Egyptian legend a bumper deal to stay at Anfield until his 35th birthday.
Salah will get a hero’s welcome from The Kop on Sunday in his first game since signing a two-year contract extension following months of uncertainty over his future.
Clubs are usually reluctant to continue paying players in their thirties around £350,000-a-week but Salah’s statistics have improved with age as he defies normal convention approaching his 33rd birthday in June.
His 27 Premier League goals this season make him odds-on to win the Golden Boot for a record-equalling fourth time.
‘He is a physical freak. That’s why it doesn’t surprise me that he still at these levels for his age,’ said Slot ahead of his league leaders facing West Ham.
‘It’s what he does physically, but also mentally, to stay at top of his game for a whole season, because it’s very hard to do this a whole season playing every three days.
Arne Slot has described Mo Salah as a ‘physical freak’ after the Egyptian extended his contract
Slot explained why Liverpool have given Salah a bumper deal keeping him until he is 35
Salah is expected to receive a hero’s welcome at Anfield after signing his new contract
‘It’s so hard to win the league or Champions League – only one team can do it every year. For a player to keep those standards for seven or eight years in row is probably even harder. And he has two more years to go and he will prove that he’s able to do so.
‘You never know if he’s going score exactly the same amount of goals, or a few more or few less, but we expect and he expects himself as well to stay at his levels.
‘The good thing about all this is that we didn’t extend him two years ago at 31 to see how he is at 33, no we are extending him three months before the next season starts.
‘I think we can all agree on the fact that Mo has had an incredible season this year. So there’s every reason to expect him to be at the same level at the start of next season.’
Salah is currently joint-fifth with Sergio Aguero on the list of all-time Premier League goalscorers with 184 and will move to second behind Alan Shearer if he continues to score at his current rate.
News about Salah’s decision to stay on Merseyside has boosted Liverpool after a rare league defeat at Fulham last week followed disappointments in the Champions League and Carabao Cup final.
Captain Virgil van Dijk will also stay at Anfield and Slot doesn’t expect panic buying this summer even if Trent Alexander-Arnold leaves for Real Madrid.
Slot does not expect panic buying this summer should Trent Alexander-Arnold leave the club
Slot offered his backing to Conor Bradley, despite the full back suffering injury setbacks
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The manager has expressed confidence in Northern Ireland international Conor Bradley claiming the right-back spot despite various injuries ruling him out of 40% of games over the past three seasons.
‘I don’t look at Conor as a player that can only play 20 games a season,’ said Slot. ‘To keep players fit who aren’t regular starters is always more difficult than the ones who play almost every game.
‘We can only judge Conor on his fitness if he is good enough, which we expect he is, to become a regular starter for us.
‘There’s not so many reasons to make it a busy one (in the transfer market) because we are quite well-placed in the league and lost only once in the Champions League against an incredible side, PSG.’
