Mohamed Salah has the potential to become one of the best players in world football, according to Gary Neville who has likened the Liverpool ace’s mentality to that of Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Egyptian ace started the season in stunning fashion with a hat-trick as Jurgen Klopp’s men began their Premier League title defence with a 4-3 victory against newly-promoted Leeds.
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That has now taken Salah’s overall goal haul at Anfield to 97 in 154 appearances since joining the club from Roma in the summer of 2016.
And even Neville has admitted he didn’t envisage the impact Salah has made at Anfield – and believes he can continue to get better and better.
Speaking on Monday Night Football, the former Manchester United and England defender said: “There was a point in the game where I was watching Salah and I just thought, that is some player.
“Three years ago, when he first came to Liverpool and he got those 40-odd goals, I thought, ‘That’s a freak. He won’t be able to live with that’.
“But then he consistently produces over a period of two or three years.
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“[Kylian] Mbappe, he’s fantastic. Neymar, he’s a bit up and down a bit… Where is the best player in the world going to be in the next couple of years?
“Salah is not far away from it anyway, but to me on Saturday he looked like an absolutely different level.”
Explaining why he believes he can surpass the likes of teammate Sadio Mane and become a Ronaldo-esque figure, Neville added: “You think about the mentality difference between Mane and Salah.
“Mane is likeable. I think the players probably love him, he gives his all every single day, he’ll do the selfless thing for the team.
“Then you look at Salah over the other side. He doesn’t pass sometimes to his team-mates. He’s a little bit more selfish and a little bit less likeable because of that, probably to the fans and to his own team-mates.
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“But then, I look at him as an outsider and I’m thinking that he is an absolute killer on the pitch.
“It reminds me of the twin tracking of [Cristiano] Ronaldo and [Wayne] Rooney in the mid-2000s. That’s where Mane and Salah are now.
“I think Salah will end up going above Mane, not because Mane’s not a great player, he is a great player as Rooney was, but the reason players [like Salah or Ronaldo] are different is that they have something up here which means that they go home at night and being the best player in the world rocks their world, whereas a Rooney or a Mane, they feel that the team’s got to win, I’ve got to give my all, I’ll fight for my team-mates. Salah doesn’t do that.”
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