Mohamed Salah has already shot past Kevin De Bruyne to take the first individual award of the domestic season; now bookmakers are starting to wake up to the possibility of Liverpool’s goal machine breaking the Lionel Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo duopoly in the Ballon d’Or at the end of the year.

The Egyptian has 43 goals in 47 clubs games this season, which is incredible enough, and thanks in no small part to his contribution against Roma his club are favourites to reach the Champions League final. If Salah can keep up his goalscoring and his knack of influencing the outcome of important matches he will certainly be a contender, and his Anfield team‑mates are backing him all the way.

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“Mo is becoming a superstar,” Dejan Lovren said after Salah’s performance against Roma. “It looks easy what he does, but it is very difficult. I don’t want to put any extra pressure on him and maybe this is not the right time but if he continues like that he has every right to be regarded as one of the best three in the world at the end of the year.

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“When people talk about Ronaldo and Messi they should also talk about Salah. He deserves it, he deserves to be mentioned for the Ballon d’Or. At the start of the season I didn’t know he could do this, but you see how he is working, how he wants the ball, he is just a different player to what he was.

“I think our style helps him a lot. He didn’t play that way for Basel or Chelsea or Roma, but the way we can find him suits him perfectly. The most important thing now is for him to stay injury free. If he can do that, anything is possible.”

Trent Alexander-Arnold, whose improvised pass sent Salah on his way to set up Liverpool’s third goal, agrees it is easy to play with someone who not only finds space but knows how to use it. “You know he is quick, you know he is smart and really intelligent, so I think we all know our game-plan,” the teenage full-back said. “We know if we hit it into the channels there will be a runner on the end of it and more often than not it is Mo on the right.

“He’ll get on the end of it and usually manage to make something happen, which is a credit to him. There is still a long way to go to the Ballon d’Or ceremony, so he has another six months or so to carry on, but I think the team would back him to continue doing well.”

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The only downside as far as Alexander-Arnold is concerned is having to face such a tricky player in training. “It’s a nightmare when you are up against him,” he said. “It’s great to watch him scoring his goals and growing in confidence, he produces cool finishes day in and day out and it’s become second nature to him now, but I can’t say I really like it when he does that stuff to me.

“The good thing about the second leg in Rome is that Mo is on our side not theirs. It’s much better to be playing with him rather than against him, and though Roma showed they are a threat in scoring their two goals, they know that we carry a goal threat as well. Maybe in the last 15 minutes of the first leg we lost our concentration, a little bit. I think we will all learn from that, but you don’t expect to be five goals up in a Champions League semi-final. It was hard not to get carried away with the atmosphere and the scoreline at the time, but we know what we need to do now. We have to go to Rome and finish the job.”