VIRGIL van Dijk has hailed Mohamed Salah as achieving something ‘special’ player after the forward broke Liverpool’s scoring record in their historic 7-0 thumping of Manchester United.
Liverpool moved to within three points of the Premier League’s top four spots after Salah, Cody Gakpo and Darwin Núñez scored two goals each before Roberto Firmino added the seventh at Anfield yesterday.
With the brace, Egypt forward Salah became Liverpool’s leading all-time Premier League goalscorer, overtaking Robbie Fowler as he netted his 128th and 129th league goals.
“Mo showed why he is so important for this football club, definitely,” Dutchman Van Dijk said. “He’s been very influential with everything positive over the last couple of years and hopefully he can keep that going.
“For him to be the all-time Premier League top scorer for Liverpool is something no one should take for granted. He definitely shouldn’t and I won’t. He should not just brush it off because it’s something special.”
The Netherlands centre-back had similar praise for his countryman Gakpo and Uruguayan Nunez, Salah’s partners in Liverpool’s attack.
“I think a lot of those goals were world class,” said Van Dijk, who then explained Gakpo’s slow start after arriving from PSV Eindhoven in January.
“The winter’s a difficult time for any player to come into any club but he’s settling in very well. It’s a difficult position to play. He has to keep going, keep the confidence, keep the belief. I think he will be fine for this club; he’s a fantastic player.”
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