Liverpool full back Trent Alexander-Arnold admits his teammate Mohamed Salah is targeting retaining the Premier League Golden Boot.
The Egyptian forward scored a brace in Wednesday’s 3-1 win at Brighton and Hove Albion which took him closer to the feat.
It takes him to 19 goals for the season, three behind leading marksman Jamie Vardy who netted in Leicester City’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal on Tuesday.
Salah has been the recipient of the Premier League Golden Boot for the past two seasons, first scoring 32 goals in his first season (2017-18) which was a record in a 38-game campaign before netting 22 goals in 2018-19 but this time sharing the gong with his Liverpool teammate Sadio Mane and Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
“He has his targets, he’s around the Golden Boot [race] and it’s something he wants to retain,” Alexander-Arnold told BBC Sport as reported by the Express.
“He’s a world-class player who scores so many goals for us and we try to get him on the board as much as possible.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp also echoed these same thoughts, insisting Salah winning the Golden Boot is motivation for him.
“He’s a striker, how can it not be a motivation for him? That’s clear,” Klopp told the press after the Brighton game.
“In the last two years he won the Golden Boot, last year he shared it with Sadio and with Auba. That’s always important, it’s important for Sadio and all that stuff is normal.
“In the end, you can only score goals when you perform well and he did that, so that was really good and apart from that, it’s all fine.”
Salah not only scored but also assisted Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson for his goal. It saw the 28-year-old reach a new milestone of becoming the fastest player to have a hand in 100 goals for the Reds.
He achieved this (73 goals, 27 assists) in 104 outings, surpassing club legends Michael Owen (148 appearances), Robbie Fowler (158 appearances) and Steven Gerrard (212 appearances).
Overall, Salah has 75 goals and 32 assists in 117 appearances in all competitions since his move from Roma in the summer of 2017.
Liverpool are 23 points clear at the top of the table with games against Burnley, Arsenal, Chelsea and Newcastle United left to play.