Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp may decide to protect Mohamed Salah for next season and ultimately hamper the attacker’s hopes of winning the Premier League Golden Boot this season. That is the view of former Aston Villa and Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood.
Salah moved to 19 goals for the season on Wednesday night with a brace in the Reds’ 3-1 win over Brighton.
The Egyptian, who has never been shy about taking shots at goal, had eight efforts on goal through the match despite team-mates being in potentially better positions.
The race to finish as the top scorer is hotting up with Jamie Vardy leading the way on 22, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on 20 and Danny Ings fourth with 18.
Salah won the battle in 2017/18, then shared it with Aubameyang and Sadio Mane last year.
With the late finish to the season due to the coronavirus pandemic, it is unclear when the 2020/21 campaign will get underway but Sherwood thinks that even though Salah is desperate for his third Golden Boot, Klopp might want to save him for the new season.
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“When you watch Salah at Brighton you can see he is desperate to win the Golden Boot,” he told Premier League Productions.
“The only problem that he might have though is his manager might be looking after him for next season.
“I think if he played all of the remaining games I think he could win it.
“It wouldn’t be easy because Vardy and Aubameyang are right up there with him but I think he would just get over the line.
“You see how desperate he is to score goals all of the time.”
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“He was shooting at every opportunity, and his teammates will not have been happy with him on two or three occasions.
“But he’s always selfish. I think tonight he was super selfish. He really wants his Golden Boot.
“They’ve won the league, so he’s done his bit for the team, he’s played his part, he’s got the goals, he’s been fabulous, and he wants that Golden Boot.
“And he thinks he’s in a team that creates chances, so he thinks it’s very much still on for him.”
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