Mohamed Salah reveals ex-Arsenal star showed him he could be Liverpool record-breaker

Mohamed Salah has revealed Thierry Henry was the player who showed him wingers can be prolific scorers.

Salah says he marvelled at Henry growing up and the former French striker became Arsenal's all-time leading scorer, netting 228 goals. Henry was never an orthodox No 9, drifting in from the left, and Salah claims that made him believe he too could become a top marksman.

The Egyptian star has excelled at Liverpool and his trademark left-foot curler, after cutting in from the right, was his 217th goal for Liverpool. His six goals have come in six games for Liverpool and chuck in his five assists, and it’s clear he is as prolific as ever.

“In my opinion, it has changed a lot in the last few years and wingers are now scoring more goals,” he told the Liverpool matchday programme. “It used to be usually the striker only who scored most of the goals, but now the wingers score a lot and it will always change the game.

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“When I was growing up, I don’t know in that time that the wingers scored that much. I would say Thierry Henry was the one, but he was a kind of striker too, maybe going to the left a little bit more.

“I used to watch him a lot, but he was still a kind of striker who always tended to go to the left side.”

Salah claims the goals started to flow in his two seasons with Roma before the floodgates opened when he joined Liverpool in June 2017 for a bargain £34million. He scored a ridiculous 44 goals in his first season with the Reds as Liverpool reached the 2018 Champions League Final, only to lose to Real Madrid.

Salah, 32, claims there is a downside to being so prolific because everyone expects too much of you.

“When I was with Rome, in two seasons I scored 30 goals,” he said. “I think that side of things has changed a lot, especially as in my first season I won the Golden Boot so everyone’s expectation became bigger and bigger. The second season I won it as well so it’s like everybody is expecting you to do it. It was like ‘oh, if you don’t score 30 goals a season, that’s a bad season for you’.

“Some people were saying last season was not good for me and I still scored 25! So it’s a change that’s happened at this club over this time. Just as the kit has changed a lot, so has the role of the winger.”

Salah learned a lot under Jurgen Klopp and has embraced Arne Slot's methods because he is constantly trying to take himself out of his comfort zone.

“We’d been together for seven years, so you kind of expect certain things most of the time,” he said. “But now the new manager has come in and we’re excited. We try to give everything. Sometimes it’s necessary to go out of your comfort zone, so we’ll try and play to our best.

“I embrace change. I think all of my life has been like this. When I look back as a person, I think I have changed a lot. Every year, every few months, I sit alone and just try to think what change can I make in my life, what’s the one thing I can improve?

“So I’ve always been out of my comfort zone. I like to change a lot and that makes you step out of your comfort zone, which is a place that’s scary for a lot of people. But there’s a time when, if you keep practising that, it becomes a part of you.”

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