Former Liverpool star John Arne Riise has explained how Mohamed Salah has proved a lot of his doubters wrong since moving to Anfield this season.
The Egyptian has been on fire for the Reds, scoring 36 goals in all competitions and topping the Premier League scoring charts with 28 strikes in the top flight.
Salah already has more goals this term than he managed in his two seasons with Roma, where he’d already started to make an impression after a disappointing spell at Chelsea earlier in his career.
The Liverpool man is surely signing of the season, and Riise has unsurprisingly enjoyed his remarkable rise under Jurgen Klopp.
The Norwegian believes no one – even Jurgen Klopp – expected Salah to produce in the way he has, and says he’s recovered superbly from his disappointment at Stamford Bridge and would now be a deserving PFA Player of the Year winner ahead of Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne.
‘I haven’t seen many players do the same things he has done in the first season at a new club. He is doing things nobody expected him to do,’ Riise told Liverpoolfc.com.
‘He didn’t have a great time at Chelsea; he was good at Roma; but now he is doing things we have never seen before.
‘Being a Liverpool fan, I want him to win every personal trophy. There are a few other players who have done well this year – Kevin de Bruyne has done well for City. I think it’s going to be tight between those two but, for me, Player of the Year is definitely Mo Salah.
‘He’s not even a typical striker either – he’s on the right wing at times,” added Riise.
‘What (Fernando) Torres did was unbelievable, that season he was really on fire. Now, Mo Salah is doing even better. It’s hard to imagine such a big achievement and the season isn’t even over.
‘He can still do more. I don’t think even Jurgen Klopp expected him to do that.’
Salah made it 16 goals in his last 14 games for club and country with a strike for Egypt against Portugal in midweek.
