Mohamed Salah takes aim at Liverpool critics and makes Jota claim

Mohamed Salah has vowed to continue ignoring the moaners – and believes Diogo Jota is making life easier for Liverpool’s celebrated front three.

Salah is expected to be in contention for Wednesday’s Champions League visit of Atalanta having missed the weekend win over Leicester City after testing positive for coronavirus.

The Egyptian will hope to continue his goalscoring form after netting 10 goals in 13 games – his best start to a season at Liverpool.

Eight have come in the Premier League with Salah in the early running for the Golden Boot award he won outright in 2018 and shared 12 months later.

And when asked about his hopes for a personal hat-trick, the Reds forward had a message for his critics.

“I think it is hard to do it the first time, but it is harder to do it for the second time and even harder to do it for the third time,” said Salah.

“Some people will always complain. They will say ‘he is good at that but he is not good in that part’.

“You just need to carry on and do your things and I am very proud that I am doing that.

“Goals, assists… I feel good about it and while it is a little bit harder, it is our job and we need to go out there and perform.

“It was important to win those individual awards, but I am always saying that the Premier League, the Champions League and team trophies come first.

“The ambition for me is to win both. We won the Champions League alone and then the Premier League last season. My ambition is to win both (in the same season).”

In Salah’s absence, Diogo Jota played on the right wing against Leicester and scored the second goal for Jurgen Klopp’s side.

The Portuguese has now netted eight times in 12 appearances since his initial £41million move from Wolverhampton Wanderers.

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And Salah believes the new boy has already helped ease the burden on himself and strike partners Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino.

“We are happy for him,” he said. “As team-mates we are trying to push each other every day in training, so to see someone come in and score goals you feel also happy for him because you feel he is going to help your team and to make it easier for us up front.

“Hopefully that will happen again and again and again. Scoring a few goals is a good way for him to start here maybe with confidence.

“To have someone else who can score goals is a great option for us. Now with Diogo we can play four together or we could still play three.”

Liverpool’s win moved them level on points with early Premier League leaders Tottenham Hotspur, with only seven points covering the top 12.

Games are still being played behind closed doors, although the Reds could…