What Gary Neville has 'never' seen Mohamed Salah do has him in awe of Liverpool talisman
Mohamed Salah has been lauded by Gary Neville for his performance in Liverpool's 2-0 win over Manchester City, with the pundit claiming he is "unplayable" after witnessing his strength on the ball
Gary Neville has called Mohamed Salah "unplayable" in the wake of Liverpool's 2-0 win over Manchester City.
Salah was on the scoresheet alongside Dominik Szoboszlai at the Etihad, but it wasn't the 32-year-old forward's scoring prowess that captured the ex-Manchester United captain's eye.
Neville said on his self-titled podcast: "He's been class for five, six, seven, eight, nine years - however long he's been at Liverpool. When I watch him at the moment, he's unplayable, unplayable. And psychologically, he's in the head of the opponent that he's up against.
"Do you know when you play against someone that you think, 'Well, I'm going to smash him, I'm going to knock him, I'm gonna go through him'? You can't. He's like a brick wall. I mean, that ball get plays up to him from 40, 50 yards away from Alisson into his chest, and he's holding [Josko] Gvardiol off - who's six foot three - like he's a little boy. And he's been doing that all season, and I've not maybe seen that in the past.
"I know he's always been strong and he's always got a great sort of, low centre of gravity, and he's got strength at length I used to say. Sometimes, players you play against as a full back, you used to think that what they would do as a winger...they're quite slight - I mean Salah's not but he is probably compared to Gvardiol - and he puts his arm out and you think, 'I can't even move'.
"And that's what Salah is at this moment in time, and then when the ball gets pinged over from [Virgil] van Dijk in the second half - like an 80-yard pass - and you just know he's going to bring it down instantly on a sixpence." He continued: "He's absolutely at the top of his game, he's a different level than anything else in the league this season in terms of his performance levels. And he's world-class."
Despite edging into what many consider the twilight years of an athlete's career, Salah shows no hints of losing steam. The striker has scored 25 goals and set up another 16 in 27 Premier League outings this season, six ahead of Erling Haaland in the overall scoring standings. Playing a pivotal role for Liverpool, his exploits have catapulted the team to prime position in the league, establishing a formidable nine-point gap over second-place contenders Arsenal.
Yet despite these heroics, Salah might be bidding farewell to Merseyside at the end of the season - as his contract joins the list of those ending in the summer. With the forward yet to sign a fresh deal at Anfield, Neville said: "Liverpool obviously will be desperate to try and keep him, but he's one of the very best players that the Premier League has seen.
"I mean, that's 11 games this season, I think, that he's had a goal and an assist in each game, which was fed into us when he scored. It's amazing. Absolutely amazing. Just one more thing on it, Van Dijk's special and I think Alisson's a great goalkeeper and they've got other good players in the team, but I always think that when you're a player that's sat back there in your shape for 90 minutes.
"And Van Dijk and [Ibrahima] Konate did it really well today, you always have to be most grateful for the player who goes and wins you the match, because that's the most difficult thing to do and the most special thin. And that's what Salah has done."
Liverpool will aim to stretch their lead in the Premier League title race when they host Newcastle United at Anfield on Wednesday, before shifting focus to the Champions League with a round of 16 face-off against PSG the following week.
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