How did Mohamed Salah become the first choice to take penalties for Liverpool?

0
Salah Penalties

Salah has been consistent at taking penalties for Liverpool since being a regular at spot kicks for the Reds, the Egyptian has also scored from the spot in the Champions League finals. His conversion rate is impressive at 89%, missing only 3 of 27 spot kicks in all competitions.

Moreover, the Egyptian King is now the leading penalty kick taker in the League.

The Egyptian superstar moved to Anfield from Roma for £37 million in June 2017 and has gone from strength to strength since.

He scored a staggering 44 goals in the first season with the Reds thereby beating Alan Shearer’s record for most Premier League goals in a 38-game season. Obviously, with stats like these, he even won the Golden boot in his very first season at LFC.

How Salah became a regular at penalties for LFC

While talking to LFCTV Original production ‘When Stevie met Salah…’, the former Roma man revealed how he took over the penalty duties from Milner.

“I think when I came I wasn’t in the first one, two, three, four [penalty takers]. I don’t know. Then there was a game at Huddersfield [in January 2018] and [Harry] Kane was scoring 21, 22 [goals]. Something like this. There was only one difference [between Kane and Salah]. Then Milner was in the game and I wasn’t really aware of everything going on. I was like ‘Okay. I’m going to take it’, I asked him nicely. A few players came to me and I said ‘guys, I need to take it. I need to score. We’re already [two] goals up’. And for me, there he [Milner] told me to take it. So I took and equalized with Kane and after that Milner came to me [to let me take them].”

What the stats say

The Egyptian forward has become the Reds’ all-time leading goal scorer in the Premier League. He has overtaken the club legend Robbie Fowler with 129 goals, out of which 18 of them have been from the spot. Mo has a total of 178 goals for Liverpool in just 219 appearances.

After a slow start to the season, the winger from Egypt has 22 goals and has been a pivotal reason for the Reds’ turnaround this season in the PL. He has been at the center of things as Jurgen Klopp’s side looks to finish in the top 4.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *