Super Eagles defender Chibuike Nwaiwu has opened up on his first impressions of Mohamed Salah following the mercurial Egyptian’s early impact for Trabzonspor after swapping Anfield for Papara Park this summer, Footynaija.com reports.
Salah has already wasted little time showing his quality since arriving in Turkey, with the former Liverpool forward scoring twice as The Black Sea Storm defeated Istanbul Basaksehir 2-1 on Sunday.
Although his first set of goal contributions for the club in three outings, that brace against Basaksehir clearly showed that the 34-year-old Egypt international is still very capable of producing the goods in front of goal.
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For Nwaiwu, who now has the unique opportunity of sharing a dressing room with one of the biggest names in African football, Salah’s quality is difficult to ignore. The Super Eagles defender believes the Egyptian remains the kind of player who demands maximum concentration from anyone tasked with stopping him.
“Every player who plays against Salah needs to be very prepared,” Nwaiwu said, as quoted by Haber61.
“As a defender, I would like to play against Salah. If I’m going to play against him, I need to be 100% ready and completely focused.
“Because Salah is not a player you can easily take out of the game. He has very high quality.”
Nwaiwu’s assessment came shortly after Salah produced a match-winning display against Basaksehir, opening the scoring after just eight minutes before restoring Trabzonspor‘s lead early in the second half.
It was the perfect response from Salah after a relatively quiet league debut against Kasimpasa, where he came off the bench in Trabzonspor’s 1-1 draw.
Now, with his first league start producing two goals and a match-winning performance, the former Liverpool star will be looking to ride this strong momentum into Trabzonspor’s next match against Ferencvaros in the Europa League.
