“He Was Always Ready!” – Liverpool Teammates, Legends & Coaches Pay Tribute To Mohamed Salah | OneFootball

Legends Depart: Mohamed Salah Tribute 

The end of this season marks the end of two journeys of players who have been essential to the success of the last 10 years of this football club: Mohammed Salah and Andrew Robertson.

When they both signed in July 2017, there weren’t huge transfer fees and expectations surrounding them like today’s Liverpool signings have. They created the opportunity to have those luxury signings. Salah’s £36.9 million transfer fee and Andrew Robertson’s £8 million fee, they both are two of the biggest value-for-money signings in the club’s history.

In return, Mohamed Salah provided 191 goals in his 315 appearances in red as the third all-time goal scorer at the club, and Robertson played 274 games and broke the record for most assists as a defender with 60 assists. Record breakers.

In their nine-year tenures, the pair have won nine trophies, including an FA Cup, two Carabao Cups, a Club World Cup, a Super Cup, the Community Shield, a Champions League and two Premier League titles. Historic.

To see two players who went from relatively unknown talents to becoming club legends who have been the best in the world in their position reflects on them as top professionals in their talent and work ethic.

We were all disappointed to hear the news of their departures, but as we have had time to reflect on their time at the club, it is obvious why they are leaving the club as legends.

Speaking to many of their former teammates and coaches, this is a tribute reflecting on the people leaving this club and how they’ve been the pillars of creating what we knew as the Liverpool we have all loved over the last nine years.

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Mohamed Salah…

The Egyptian’s departure was the first of the two to be announced on 24th March, nearly 12 months after signing a two-year extension with the club. From entering the club as a decent winger to leaving the club as one of the Premier League’s best-ever players, the smiles he put on people’s faces from his incredible talent and hard work are what he has been remembered for over the last two months and a big chunk of the legacy he will leave behind at Anfield.

Speaking to former coaches and teammates, it was noticeable what his key attributes were to the Egyptian king’s success…

Adam Lewis, a former Liverpool full-back currently on loan at AFC Fylde from Chesterfield, said, “He’s the first one in the gym and the last one to leave,” which is also what former teammate of Salah, Danny Ings, said in his first impressions of Mo.   “He’s the first one in the gym; he works so hard. The first thing I noticed is his work ethic. He’s so fast, so strong.” The now 33-year-old former teammate said when recalling his first impressions of the Egyptian.

It’s the first part of the three attributes he is remembered for. Not only are his work ethic and gym work so memorable, but it is also his ruthlessness on the pitch and how much of a role model he was as a person and player within the team.

When speaking to former Liverpool coaches John Achterberg (goalkeeper coach) and Klopp’s right-hand man at the club, Peter Krawietz, they both had so much to say about his quality on the pitch.

Krawietz recalls his first encounter against Salah when he was with Jurgen Klopp at Borussia Dortmund, saying the Egyptian “took us to pieces on our left-hand side”, meaning he got a flavour of his ruthlessness and quick feet before he even got to work with him.

“We expected a right winger who was a goal scorer; we saw videos that showed he was unbelievably quick. I remember one game during training, and Mo started to show what he could do, and I thought [Salah was] even better than I thought.”

“He was always ready to commit to the team; he understood that he needed to support his team in defending, and the team would give him the ball to score. He was always ready to adapt, to learn, to listen to what was needed.

“Mo is a player who will always show this kind of focus. He was extremely reliable; he was nearly always ready, and players become role models for their mates, and he was one of them. He just did everything to be successful.”

Words like that are only used for legends, and with how easy Klopp’s former right-hand man said it was to work with Liverpool’s third-highest goal scorer, it is easy to see why he has gained that legendary status.

John Achterberg’s words were also extremely fitting, claiming the Egyptian should’ve won the Ballon d’Or, with extremely high praise about his gym work and attacking nature.

“He was like a hunter on the training field. He’s always hunting for more success. I think the 2018/2019 season, where he scored crazy goals, but also how he hunted players down, fighting, running up and down, coming back and going forwards, but also the aggression to go forward and take the ball, past players.”

It reflects the relentless nature of Mo Salah in attack, and his tenacity is something that, as fans, you can never forget and will struggle to replace to a level anywhere near the man who has the record for the most goal involvements for a single club.

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It wasn’t coaches who just spoke about his incredible talent that was felt around training and on match days; it was teammates too.   Dejan Lovren, one of Salah’s best friends in football, was a former teammate between 2017 and 2020 and felt this too. It was his high praise of Salah’s quality that, as a teammate, is the highest respect he can give.

“Each game, he had a point to prove. He always believed himself to be at the top of the ladder. When he got another chance to come back in the Premier League, he said, ‘This is my chance; I will prove to anyone against me that they are wrong. Tell me another player who’s done so many years at the top level [apart from Messi and Ronaldo].”

Danny Ings also said, “He ticks so many boxes. Even when you see some of his goals, they aren’t all pretty to the eye, but he’s ruthless. If he misses a chance, he will get another. He’s one of the strongest players I have played with. He can quite easily go and play as a number 9 and shove defenders off.”

Every player had something different to say about Salah’s game, which speaks volumes about his quality.

Jordan Henderson was extremely impressed with his quick feet, something that can go under the radar with all his other immense qualities.   “How quick he was with the ball, his agility! You thought, ‘Wow, he is sharp’ I thought that was unique straight away. I knew he’d give a lot of energy straight away.

“When you have someone like Mo in your team, he will come up with something in a big moment; the big strength of his is the mentality. If you hadn’t seen much of him in the game, he turned up when it mattered time and time again.”

It was, however, the person that Mohamed Salah is that really creates the lasting effect on his teammates and coaches.

Danny Ings and Jordan Henderson both said that he helped them a lot off the pitch, which is something you don’t hear about much.

Ings said, “He was one of the guys who helped me when I was going through tough times.

“Off the pitch, he’s very unselfish; he helps others. He spoke to me a lot. You could genuinely tell he wanted me to do well, which speaks volumes.

Henderson said something similar, saying, “He actually helped me in terms of the person he is, how humble he was and how respectful he was to everyone, the staff and the players. Mo is another level wherever you go; how he handles all that [photos, everyone wanting to speak to him] is amazing. So humble and so respectful to other people.

“I couldn’t speak highly enough of him as a human being, as a person, and I couldn’t thank him enough for what he’s done for the team and for me and for me and for me.”

He is a role model not just to fans, but to teammates too. It seems as if that legacy as a legendary role model will stick with everyone at the club. It was his recovery, his nutrition and his humbleness that made him the player he has become.

Achterberg said, “The effort that he put in the gym showed the other players what they had to do to make it to the next level. He was big on his nutrition; he always said, don’t drink a Diet Coke, but drink water.”

Lovren said, “We had two days off. I went to London and called him, and he was swimming. I said, ‘Where are you?’ and he said, ‘I am recovering.’ The Mo from Alexandra never left. That’s one of the reasons why he stays so humble, as he knows where he came from.”

That humble character, the man who never forgot his roots and dedicated his whole life to the game. A true legend. Most goals in a 38-game season, most goal involvements for a single club in Premier League history, the top-scoring overseas player in Premier League history and the most goals in a major European club competition for a single English club, just to name a few of the records he has broken.

One of the best to do it, I doubt we will see anyone else near the level of Mohamed Salah for a long time. Not just an incredible footballer, but an incredible human too.

We at the Redmen TV wish the very best to both Mohammed Salah and Andrew Robertson in the future and thank them for being part of one of the club’s best teams in their nine years at the club. You’ll Never Walk Alone.