Virgil van Dijk has challenged Mohamed Salah to maintain the sort of form that will allow him to “play his best season ever” at Anfield. The Reds’ top goalscorer moved up to 18 overall for the campaign with two more for the haul in Sunday’s 6-3 demolition of Tottenham Hotspur and is now fourth on the all-time list of scorers for the club with 229.
With 15 assists to his name now too, no other player in Europe’s top leagues has as many goal contributions as Salah’s total of 33, with Eintracht Frankfurt’s Omar Marmoush second with 29 and Van Dijk wants to see his colleague keep up the pace for the Premier League and Champions League leaders.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Van Dijk said. “He’s a very special athlete. He’s done amazingly for the club. And hopefully he can play his best season ever for the club. Stay important with his goals and assists and be clinical.
“But we need always the complete performance from him. All the defensive work he can put in for us as well is very important as well for the last line, the goalkeeper, he has to keep going and I think he will.
“It’s a great game. Big result. But it’s only three points. We move on. It’s great before Christmas. It’s a good feeling to go into Christmas. But for us personally the focus will already be on Leicester, quickly.”
The Liverpool and Netherlands captain also said he is placing no deadline on when a new contract can be agreed at Anfield as his impasse rumbles on.
