Michael Owen believes Mohamed Salah was still 'quite quiet' in Liverpool's victory against Ajax - but added that his goal should give him a huge confidence boost.
The Reds got their Champions League campaign up and running with a 2-1 win over the Dutch outfit, Joel Matip's 89th-minute header creeping far enough over the line for goal-line technology to alert referee Artur Dias and send the Kop into rapture. Salah had opened the scoring at Anfield after 15 minutes, latching onto Diogo Jota's intelligent pass and sliding the ball past Remko Pasveer.
But despite the early finish - which ended his four-game goalless streak - the Egyptian winger watched a lot of the tie from the fringes, hugging the touchline and not managing to dominate Liverpool's attacking play as he has done so often previously. And former Reds striker Owen echoed that the 30-year-old was 'quite quiet', but added his goal should give him a boost.
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"His overall game, he ran at his man a couple of times, looked sharp but his overall game was quite quiet," Owen told BT Sport. "I think he’s still one of the Liverpool players when Jurgen Klopp was talking about the previous game in Naples, he mentioned three players who could keep their head up; Luis Diaz had to be one of them, Harvey Elliott I think as well, Thiago came off the bench and done well and you can’t criticise Alisson at the moment.
"Mohamed Salah is one of the leaders in the camp and his performances have just dipped lately, that goal will give him a boost of confidence."
Unfortunately for Salah, there will be no chance to instantly build on that goal at the weekend as Liverpool's trip to Chelsea has been postponed due to policing concerns around the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Jurgen Klopp's side won't play again until October, with a weekend off due to international football.
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