Kevin Strootman has revealed Roma’s gameplan to nullify Mohamed Salah during Tuesday’s Champions League first leg with Liverpool at Anfield – but it won’t be obvious until the night.

The Dutchman will line up in the Roma midfield at Anfield after a stunning comeback against Barcelona in the quarter-finals saw them through into the last four of the competition.

Strootman is often handed the task of man-marking when facing players of the quality of Salah, his former teammate who left the Italian capital last summer, but insisted that while Roma do have a plan to deal with the 41-goal Egyptian, it may not necessarily involve this tactic.

“We have special tactics [for Salah] but I’m not going the share it!” he told The Independent. “Italian defence, that is what I’m hoping for!”

Salah, who won the PFA Player of the Year award on Sunday night, may terrify defences now, but he was a more frustrating presence when in Rome, with Strootman revealing he was surprised by how many goals the forward has given how wasteful he was last season.

“I’m not surprised at how well he’s doing but just at how easy he scores the goals and how confident he is in front of goal with the ball,” Strootman added. “Here he did a great job and did a lot of great assists and goals but he missed a lot of chances especially one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

“But now he has so much confidence and he just creates the chances himself and finds it easy in front of the goal. He is a great person outside the pitch on the pitch he just keeps going. I am surprised by how many goals he has scored so far but not how he plays. Here he was a nightmare for opponents and in England he is doing the same.

More from Kevin Strootman... Show all 7 1 /7 More from Kevin Strootman... More from Kevin Strootman... Strootman on… the comeback against Barcelona “At 3-1 we thought we could do it but the fourth goal was a lot. But we prepared really good and the manager did a really good job with the formation, we changed a little bit the tactics and it worked out very well for us. The first goal gives you a little bit of confidence and if we didn’t believe before we really started to believe. It was really important and after it was 2-0 everyone was like ‘yeah now we are going to do it’.” AFP/Getty Images More from Kevin Strootman... Strootman on… quarter-final celebrations “In the dressing room there was a little bit of a party, everyone was happy but after that we had the game against Lazio, the derby, and here in Rome if you lose the derby everyone will forget about the game against Barcelona.” Getty Images More from Kevin Strootman... Strootman on… Liverpool vs Manchester City “I was surprised with the outcome of the first game, the 3-0, in the first half. It was amazing against a strong team like Manchester City but they have really good players especially up front. They are so dangerous and scored the most goals in the competition so it will be really hard.” Getty Images, More from Kevin Strootman... Strootman on… Anfield “We know there’s going to be a great atmosphere but also in Roma there will be a great atmosphere here. They will be surprised by our crowd and the sound of our crowd when we play against strong crowds like that so it will be special. We will be prepared.” AFP/Getty Images More from Kevin Strootman... Strootman on… his future “I’m 28 so I don’t want to think about this. I lost two years so I think I can play until I am 40 – normally it’s 38 but I have those two more years. I don’t see it like that, I’m happy here and with the injury they supported me and I want to give something back.” AFP/Getty Images More from Kevin Strootman... Strootman on… Serie A and Champions League qualification “I don’t want to say we are getting used to it but if you have a season like this in the Champions League then you can to play these kind of games also next year. We are close with Inter and Lazio but we have to make sure in the last games that we achieve the goal to play in the Champions League next year.” Getty Images More from Kevin Strootman... Strootman on… his change of style “Maybe I have lost some speed, some explosion, then maybe I have changed a bit because of that but things are better now and I try to do the best I can. It’s difficult to compare yourself before your injury but if you lose something then you try harder to make the other parts of your game better and that’s what I’m doing.” Getty Images