Mohamed Salah can play for many years due to the care he puts into looking after his body, says Arne Slot after the 32-year-old Egyptian scored and assisted to help Liverpool to a convincing 2-0 win at newly-promoted Ipswich.
The Reds had to weather a storm in the first half as the atmosphere at Portman Road made for a hostile welcome. Slot was not happy with Liverpool’s start to the match but was left delighted at how they responded after the break. Salah and Diogo Jota scored the goals.
And new Reds head coach Slot, who joined from Feyenoord to replace Jurgen Klopp this summer, said: ‘If I see what (Salah) does to keep his body as it is to be ready to play every game, then I think there are many more years inside of him to play.
‘But I’m looking now at Brentford (the next game) and not at the end of the season! I don’t believe in individuals, I believe more in the team. Mo can score goals because of good runs from other players, or because of buildups from the team. So I think Mo also needs the team.’
Salah, whose contract runs out at the end of this season and needs resolving, marked his 350th Liverpool appearance by taking his goal involvements tally to 300 (212 goals, 88 assists). He has also scored nine goals on the opening weekend of a Premier League season.
Mohamed Salah bagged a goal and assist as Liverpool got their season off to a winning start
Salah now has 300 goal contributions in 350 competitive appearances for Liverpool
New Reds boss Arne Slot was not happy with how his team had played in the first half
The Egyptian superstar is out of a contract at the end of the 2024-25 Premier League season
The Egyptian added: ‘Hopefully I keep going like this for the whole season! I always try to help the team all the time, I'm always happy to score goals or assist. (Ipswich are) a tough team, I'm glad we won today, I'm always happy to make a difference.’
Slot was not happy with Liverpool’s first-half performance and said: ‘I inherited a very, very good team with a lot of great individuals, but also these players have to understand that it's not enough what they brought in the first half.
‘It wasn’t so much that we lost the ball too much, but we lost far too many duels. They were very aggressive which led to three yellow cards, but in a good way aggressive. We didn’t cope with that well enough.
‘That’s what I said to them at half-time – if you want to win here, you need to go a step up in terms of winning your duels first and make a fight out of it instead of accepting that every time we play a ball long, the ball ends up in our (box) again.
‘If they bring (the) maximum of their capacity, they can play really, really good. And that's what they showed in the second half today. But it was good to see the goals we scored.’
Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna was proud of his team and said: 'There were a lot more positives. The second-half was difficult, Liverpool kicked into their stride and the game got away from us. The players will come away from the game more confident knowing they can compete at this level.'