Arne Slot heaped praise upon “special” Mohamed Salah after his latest Liverpool heroics, but remains unable to say if the Egyptian star will remain at Anfield beyond the summer.
After a quiet first half by his usual sky-high standards, Salah came alive after the break in Wednesday night’s six-goal thriller against Newcastle in the Premier League, assisting Curtis Jones’ initial equaliser before notching twice himself to put the Reds into a late lead and also hitting the crossbar.
It looked as if the 32-year-old had won the game from a losing position with a second-half brace once again for Liverpool after doing the same at Southampton only last month, having also scored the second goal in Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Manchester City at Anfield.
However, despite overtaking City star Erling Haaland as the Premier League’s leading scorer this season with 13 goals in 14 games and extending his overall record this term to 15 in 21, it was not enough to secure Liverpool’s eighth successive victory across all competitions as Fabian Schar punished a late Caoimhin Kelleher mistake to seal a dramatic point for Newcastle, trimming their opponents’ title advantage from nine to seven in the process after nearest challengers Chelsea and Arsenal were both victorious.
It was another performance to greatly strengthen Salah’s position in talks over an extension to his Liverpool contract, a storyline that has dominated the agenda on Merseyside over recent weeks with his current deal due to expire in the summer.
Salah - who is said to have transfer interest from Saudi Arabia after French giants Paris Saint-Germain publicly denied they were poised to make a move - has gone public with his disappointment at not being offered a new contract over recent weeks, though reports earlier on Wednesday suggested that a proposal was expected soon after captain Virgil van Dijk was offered a new deal amid ongoing talks with Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Asked again about Salah’s Liverpool future after the draw at Newcastle, Slot said: "It's difficult for me to predict the long-term future, but the only thing I can expect or predict is that he is in a very good place at the moment.
"He plays in a very good team that provides him with good opportunities and then he is able to do special things.
"And what makes him for me even more special is that in the first hour or before we scored to make it 1-1, you thought, 'He's not playing his best game today', and to then come up with a half-hour or 45 minutes - I don't know how long it was - afterwards with an assist, two goals, having a shot on the bar, being a constant threat, that is something not many players can do if they've played the first hour like he did.
"That is also what makes him special. If you just look at the goals, his finish is so clinical. He's a special player, but that's what we all know."
Speaking to Amazon Prime Video on Salah, Slot said Liverpool were “hoping and expecting” that he would continue his form with them for “a long time”.
"Every time we need Mo Salah he scores a goal,” he said. "We are hoping and expecting he can continue this for a long time. He was outstanding in the second half, he did many special things for us."
