Former Liverpool star Kevin Keegan believes that current star Mohamed Salah has the potential to be a club icon like Kenny Dalglish.
The Egyptian forward lit up the league last season, picking up PFA and FWA Player of the Year awards in the process as he hit 32 Premier League goals.
While Salah hasn’t begun his second season on Merseyside as quickly as he did last season, Keegan believes that he has the potential to be a club great, and help deliver them major silverware.
Talking to talkSPORT, Keegan said:
The only way you can get to that stage, if you like, is you have got to win things.
You can’t get to be like Kenny, who came after me and replaced me – I think they saved about 50 grand in the transfer deal. Kenny was a bit cheaper than me amazingly.
But Kenny is remembered there for the teams he played in and obviously for the other things he done at the club.
But you can’t become really in the fabric of the club unless your team is successful. You’ve got to put honours like European cups or league titles in there as well.
And yes I think he can, is the answer to your question because Liverpool are in with a chance of winning the league this year.
Naturally, given how well Salah performed last season, expectations have been risen for this campaign, although Salah has so far only netted three times in 10 appearances.
However Keegan feels that it is unfair to be overly critical so early, with there no doubt that Salah will perform over the course of the entire season. Keegan continued:
This guy deserves to be given a bit of a run in the first team.
I mean, he didn’t single-handedly get them up there last year but he was the main reason – make no mistake about that.
[Sadio] Mane, the other players, [Philippe] Coutinho when he was there, they played parts don’t get me wrong. But Salah was the one who made the difference.
So you’ve got to be patient with players like that, make sure you keep them on board. If you start to leave him out, that will not make him play any better.
I think they have got to just play him through it and he deserves that right. I wouldn’t leave him out, ever.
You know it is only a matter of time – form is temporary, class is permanent and he is definitely a class player.”
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