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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Tom Blow

Michael Owen sums up Mohamed Salah's importance to Liverpool after Man City heroics

Michael Owen believes Mohamed Salah is still Liverpool's talisman and is backing him to finish as the club's top scorer this season.

Salah, 30, has scored nine goals in 14 games this term - but just three of those have come in the Premier League. He is some way behind Erling Haaland's tally of 15 in the competition, with Harry Kane and Ivan Toney bagging nine and eight goals respectively.

Yet Owen thinks Salah will score plenty of Premier League goals this season. He hit the winner against Manchester City at Anfield last Sunday and will be looking to find the net again in Liverpool's next game against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Saturday.

"Well, I think if you ask anybody, any Liverpool fan, to predict who will be Liverpool's top scorer by the end of the season," Owen told Mirror Football , courtesy of aceodds.com. "I'd be very surprised if many said anyone other than Mo Salah.

"He's just a consistent source of goals, he has been for a few years. You might have been surprised when he first came in and he scored all those goals. But I think it’s long gone when it comes to people thinking that was a flash in the pan.

"He's one of the most consistent goalscorers in the Premier League. On Sunday against Manchester City when you need someone - someone that's just missed a similar chance as well - to step up, shrug that missed chance away and finish beautifully the next time round.

Mohamed Salah scored the winner against Manchester City on Sunday (REUTERS)

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"He just showed what great character he's got, what great mentality he's got. Mo Salah is definitely still the one person. If I'm thinking 'we need a goal', I’m still looking at Mo to produce it."

Salah has been integral to Liverpool's success under Klopp - helping them win the Premier League title, Champions League, FA Cup, EFL Cup, Club World Cup, European Super Cup and Community Shield since arriving from Roma in the summer of 2017.

Salah wasn't tipped to become one of the Premier League's most prolific scorers after finding the net 15 times in Serie A in his final season in Italy for Roma. Yet he's found goals easy to come by in England, scoring 121 goals in 189 Premier League games and winning three Golden Boots.

Salah is currently sharing the Merseyside limelight with Roberto Firmino, who's been in blistering form this season. The Brazilian, who is out of contract in June, has scored eight goals - including six in the Premier League - and provided four assists.

Liverpool's dependence on Salah and Firmino grew significantly after the departure of Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich in the summer. Salah penned a new three-year contract with the club in July, committing what ought to be the best years of his career to the Reds.

Liverpool signed Darwin Nunez and Fabio Carvalho in the summer to try to find their next talisman, as well as fill the void left by Mane. Klopp will be hoping Salah and Nunez can form a fine partnership, as the Uruguayan striker hit 34 goals for Benfica last term.

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