Conte names five Liverpool players Chelsea must be wary of

Matt Stead

Antonio Conte believes Chelsea face a “very dangerous” Mohamed Salah and Liverpool on Saturday but warned they can have no excuses if they do not perform despite a trying week of travel.

Salah joined Chelsea in January 2014, having impressed playing against them for Swiss side Basel.

But the Egypt forward was soon loaned out to Fiorentina and Roma, making the latter move permanent in 2016 before joining Liverpool last summer.

Conte declined to discuss the reasons for Salah’s unsuccessful Chelsea spell, because it was before his time at the club. But the Italian did praise the Premier League’s top scorer.

“He was very young and I think now he developed a lot,” Conte said.

“Salah is a good player and is very dangerous. He’s a technical player, but at the same time is very fast, very strong, very good in one v one.

Liverpool’s Fab Four: Please don’t stop the music

“Also he’s very good to finish. We must pay great attention, but not only to Salah, also to (Sadio) Mane, (Roberto) Firmino, Philippe Coutinho, (Daniel) Sturridge.

“They have a good coach (Jurgen Klopp), they have a good identity. Great organisation, especially offensively. They are very dangerous.”

There’s no reason to suggest he can’t win the golden boot, other than Liverpool falling away, but the bookmakers do prefer Harry Kane (2/1), Aguero (9/2) and Lukaka (6/1) over Salah… if he was playing for City or United that might be a different story.