Mohamed Salah says he is motivated to continue breaking records for Liverpool after hitting a trio of goals in his side’s 1-0 win over Brentford.
The 30-year-old forward’s 13th-minute finish close to the post was his 100th Liverpool goal at Anfield and tied him with Steven Gerrard on 186 goals for the club, fifth on the all-time list .
The goal also saw Salah become the first Liverpool player to score in nine consecutive home matches.
“It means a lot to me. I feel at home here, I’m happy,” Salah told Sky Sports. “I hope we just have to end the season in the best possible way. As much as I score goals, the team wins games, that’s the most important thing.
“It’s something that makes me proud. I work very hard, everyone knows it, everyone sees it. And then I’m just motivated to keep breaking records, scoring goals and winning games for the team.
The win was Liverpool’s sixth in a row and puts them one point behind fourth-placed Manchester United, despite Jurgen Klopp’s side having played two more games.
The result was also Liverpool’s second clean sheet in a row after Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Fulham, and Salah stressed the importance of his side’s defensive performance.
“We have improved a lot in the last few weeks,” he added. “We’ve had six wins in a row, we’ve had a few clean sheets which is really important for us because once you don’t concede you just have to win 1-0 and that’s everything; that’s what happened this game and the last game.
“So I think we have motivation at the moment in the team, we have to keep going. There are three games left, we have to keep going.
The national anthem was played before kick-off at Anfield to mark the coronation of King Charles III and it was met with boos from sections of the Liverpool crowd.
Liverpool fans have a complicated relationship with the anthem – one defined by politics and social history as much as sport – and Klopp stressed the importance of freedom of expression for those who do and those who do not choose to celebrate the coronation.
“First and foremost, today is a great day for England and I respect that a lot,” Klopp said. “Anyone who wants to be happy about it and wants to celebrate it is allowed to celebrate it. We did, thank God – and things are not better today than in the past – but we have freedom of expression. It also means a free opinion.
“It was clear that something like this would happen, I think everyone knew that. And it is allowed, in the meantime. It’s good. Nothing else happened and there was no kind of chanting or anything like that. It was just people showing (their feelings). I don’t know exactly what it is, some things I know, not all. But the people of Liverpool in the past weren’t always happy with the way city or club were treated. So that’s what they did.
“I really think today, for all the other people who love the day – and I don’t know if you say congratulations to the king, but if you did, I’m doing it here – but the people who celebrate it, they do it here. Other people who aren’t happy say so and that’s it. I think that’s absolutely correct.
Liverpool will resume action on Monday May 15 with a trip to Leicester.
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(Photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images)
