Minamino Welcomes Salah & Mane Competition

New signing Takumi Minamino is ready to embrace the challenge of competing with “world-class” Mohammed Salah and Sadio Mane for minutes at Liverpool, with a £7.25 million ($10m) deal having been pushed through.

He told Liverpool’s official website of working with Salah, Mane and Co: "Not only them, there are many world-class players here and of course it’s not an easy challenge.

“It’s not easy to overtake those players to get a position but having the mentality of challenging those players is important to keep the team’s high level. That sort of mentality is important for the team and I certainly will play with that mentality.

“I’m looking forward to working with Jurgen Klopp, I think one of my strengths will be to be able to communicate with him in German – because I speak a bit of German – and I’m really looking forward to it.

“I think he is one of the best managers in the world and I always want to improve myself, so it would be great if I could make a contribution to the growth of the team and myself.”

He added: “I’m an offensive player so I always want to assist and score goals.

“I would like to maintain that quality and the number of situations that directly lead to more goals and assists. I think that is my strength, so I would like to show that strength of mine in this team.”

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MO Salah Can Build On Record Breaking Season - James Milner

James Milner insists Mohamed Salah is not a one-season wonder, with the Liverpool veteran confident his star team-mate can enjoy another record-breaking campaign.

Liverpool forward Salah took Anfield by storm last season, scoring 44 goals in all competitions and 32 in the Premier League following his arrival from Roma.

Salah – who suffered a shoulder injury in Liverpool's Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid – walked away with the Premier League's Golden Boot and Player of the Year among other individual honours.

After enjoying a goalscoring return in Liverpool's 2-1 victory over Manchester City at the International Champions Cup on Wednesday, Milner believes the Egyptian sensation can build on his 2017-18 exploits.

"The best players in the world aren't known because they just did it in one season, they do it over and over again. He is more than capable of doing that," Milner said.

"I think obviously there is pressure when you've had one good year to deliver again. I think he's a top player, he's shown that and he's going to keep improving.

"We need to keep improving as a side with him as well and make sure that all the pressure is not on his shoulders to deliver goals and get us out of tough situations.

"It's down to all of us to help him be the best player he can and do that as part of a team."

Salah's performances alerted some of Europe's giants, with Champions League holders Madrid linked to the 26-year-old.

However, Salah signed a new five-year contract earlier in July to pledge his future to Liverpool.

"I was never worried, personally," Milner said. "There's always going to be stories when players do well. You saw how well he played last season, improving, and he seems happy so I don't see any reason why he'd want to go.

"That's what happens when you have good players. That's a positive thing for us that when there's speculation about your players it means that they are playing well and performing, and he obviously has."

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