Pep Lijnders has been blown away by how Mohamed Salah is training at Liverpool’s mid-season training camp in Dubai.
Following a sensational 2021, the Egyptian has endured an up and down 2022 as he helped the Reds win both the FA Cup and League Cup, but suffered Premier League and Champions League final disappointment. Meanwhile, he’d also suffer Africa Cup of Nations final defeat back in February before failing to qualify for the World Cup with the Pharaohs.
The 30-year-old’s form suffered after his international heartache, with it also suggested at the time that he was fatigued and distracted by uncertainty over his future. Yet he has returned to scoring ways this season, netting 14 goals after signing a new long-term contract in the summer.
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And Lijnders has lauded Salah as one of the leaders of the Liverpool squad when offering an insight into how the forward is training ahead of the restart of the Premier League, following the World Cup break, later this month.
“He is the guy who goes out of his comfort zone. Nothing good happens in the comfort zone and he goes out of it all the time,” Liverpool’s assistant manager told The National . “He left Egypt, it wasn’t easy, a lot of setbacks, and with time and with his character and with his personality, became a leader in my opinion. Not just a leader on the pitch but also a leader in the dressing room.
“He’s such an example for the world, how the world could look and how he deals with situations. We’re really proud that he has signed with us again, that he’s with us, that he’s one of our leaders. I always look at him, if he trains how he trains, I always see him training so well.
“If you see Mo Salah being concentrated from the first minute of training until the last minute, showing his dribbling skills, his unpredictability, being a leader, speaking with the young kids, I can only say that so far, so good.”
While the majority of the Liverpool squad are currently training in Dubai, the Reds still have six players competing at the 2022 World Cup in nearby Qatar following Darwin Nunez’s group-stage exit with Uruguay.
And Lijnders offered some insight into Liverpool’s plans for reintroducing their international stars to training following their World Cup exploits, insisting it’s important for them all to have a break before reporting back for duty.
“As you know players with injuries are coming back at this moment, who we really need, who give the team different dynamics,” the Dutchman said. “It’s never good that you have to prepare the second half of the season without six or seven guys who are still at the World Cup.
“But they’re competing at the world’s best stage and we’re so proud of them that they are there. We wish them all the best and I hope Virgil comes back with something at least.
“If you play on a high level and you play every three days, you’re competing in the World Cup, emotionally it’s draining. So the only way to create freshness again is that the boys get some time off, that the boys regain this mental freshness.
“A lot of people mistake physical fatigue with mental fatigue. So we have to make sure that they are fresh because they play for their country, a different style, so we will first give them time off to really relax, to be with their families, to put the emotion aside, because whether they win or lose, anyway it will be emotional.
“And after that they will come. That’s why one of the reasons we came to Dubai is because it’s a really short trip from Qatar. So then they join us hopefully here, or hopefully they win it all, then of course they join us there and we reintegrate them.
“They will be fit but they probably not be fit to our style because they play a different way in the national teams, so then it’s about adapting them again. But they are top players so they adapt really quick.”
Liverpool struggled with injuries and consistency during the first half of the season, and currently sit sixth in the Premier League table as a result - seven points off the Champions League places.
But Lijnders has backed the Reds to enjoy a strong second half of the campaign off the back of their mid-season training camp.
“We have to become a pain for all the other teams again,” he said. “If there was one simple reason or one simple conclusion – it’s never like this of course. Many things came together that made the season more complicated and more difficult.
“If you come to a phase where there is a lot of doubt and players and team are not as dominant as you were before, you have to find different solutions. But it’s arrogant to think that life will always go up, up, and up, how it went the last years.
“There will be difficult moments and it’s for me, Jurgen, for the rest of the staff, for the team, to deal well with the difficult moments. And honestly I never saw the team lose commitment, I never saw the team lose passion, I never saw the team lose togetherness.
“And if we have that, success will come back again, if they work like that. Hopefully the tough period is behind us.
“I believe with the character we have, if we keep them fit and if we keep them fresh, and we build on what we did, we will be back again. And there’s so much to play for still, people forget that sometimes; we will be there.”
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