One ‘phenomenal’ Liverpool player has already left Reds coach blown away in pre-season
Liverpool’s players are being put through their paces in pre-season training, and while Arne Slot has still to welcome back numerous members of his first-team squad, one man in particular has caught the eye in Kirkby.
As reported by James Pearce for The Athletic, Mo Salah is setting the standards at the AXA Training Centre, having displaced Sepp van den Berg as the player with the best performance in the gruelling six-minute fitness race.
Having been implored (along with Wataru Endo) by first-team fitness coach Conall Murtagh to ‘show the [younger] lads how it’s done’, the latter was left awestruck by the Egyptian’s subsequent response, giving his verdict on the 32-year-old with one simple word – ‘phenomenal’.
The journalist added in his article that our number 11 has returned for pre-season in ‘incredible shape’ and has been the standard bearer for his teammates to emulate ‘both in the gym and on the training field’, acting as ‘the perfect role model’ for the young players trying to break through under Slot.
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The insight from Pearce as to Salah’s efforts in pre-season perfectly encapsulate the Egyptian’s elite mentality and go some way to explaining why he’s scored at least 23 goals in each of his seven campaigns at Liverpool so far.
The forward fell way short of his usual world-class standards towards the end of last term, prompting some pundits to call for him to be sold this summer as he turned 32 and entered the final year of his current £350,000-per-week contract at Anfield.
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However, he wasn’t the only Reds player whose form tailed off throughout April in particular, and the break he’s had following Egypt’s World Cup qualifiers in June appears to have nicely reinvigorated him.
As Pearce rightly points out, witnessing Salah set the standards on the training ground is exactly the motivation that the younger members of the squad need if they’re to emulate his impact in future years.
Murtagh summed it up brilliantly with that one-word appraisal, and Slot must be delighted to have such a dedicated and elite operator setting the tone in Kirkby as a new era dawns at Liverpool.
Thank goodness the hierarchy didn’t listen to the pundits who advocated for the club to take the money for him and run!
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