Mohamed Salah has opened up on a conversation with Liverpool vice-captain James Milner that initiated the passing of the penalty-taking baton at Anfield and helped the Eypgtian in his quest to become the Reds' all-time scorer in the Premier League.
The Egyptian added another Anfield record to his resume on Sunday as his second half brace in the 7-0 thrashing of Manchester United, goals 128 and 129 for the Reds, saw him leapfrog Robbie Folwer to become Liverpool's outright highest scorer in the Premier League era.
In the build-up to the clash of the titans encounter on Merseyside last week, the 30-year-old admitted he had always targeted the former Liverpool No.9's record since the day he completed his switch from AS Roma in the summer of 2017.
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Of his 129 strikes in Liverpool red, which have included all types of goals from solo stunners to long-range thunderbolts, 18 of Salah's efforts have been from the penalty spot - having established himself as the Reds' ice-cold operator from 12 yards.
However, that wasn't always the case on Merseyside as prior to his switch from the Serie A outfit, James Milner was entrusted with penalty duties at Anfield from the summer of 2015 onwards.
But that was all to change in the January of 2018, as Salah - en route to breaking Alan Shearer's record for the amount of Premier League goals in a 38-game season, managed to convince the midfielder to allow him to assume responsibilities as he bid to end Harry Kane's two-year grip on the Golden Boot award.
Speaking to Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard in an LFCTV Original, ‘When Stevie met Salah…’, the Egyptian recalled how a trip to Huddersfield Town in early 2018 allowed him to assure Milner of his qualities.
"I think when I came I wasn't in the first one, two, three, four [penalty takers]," recalled Salah. "I don't know. Then there was a game at Huddersfield [in January 2018] and [Harry] Kane was scoring 21, 22 [goals]. Something like this. There was only one difference [between Kane and Salah].
"Then Milner was in the game and I wasn't really aware of everything going on. I was like 'Okay. I'm going to take it', I asked him nicely. A few players came to me and I said 'guys, I need to take it. I need to score. We're already [two] goals up'. And for me, there he [Milner] told me to take it. So I took and equalised with Kane and after that Milner came to me [to let me take them]."
Liverpool's No.11 was speaking in conversation with Gerrard about the appetite for scoring goals and had earlier revealed he hates the feeling of taking penalties. Something Fernando Torress suffered with during his career, according to the former Reds captain.
"I always hate pens. I don't like the feeling," said Salah. "If Milner is on the pitch are you still the penalty taker, yeah?" questioned Gerrard.
MS: "Yeah, we spoke together and he told me [that I can take them]."
SG: "Do you mean you spoke and you just said 'I'm taking them'?"
MS: "No, no, no. He spoke to me, he's a really cool guy to be fair and I have to be honest he came to me and said it's working very well so you stay on them. I think that was two years ago."
SG: "I know how centre forwards work, I've had close relationships with Michael Owen, Fowler, Torres, Suarez. They want to be the No.1 striker in the league, the top scorer, so if you're on the penalties it obviously gives you a bigger chance.
"Torres didn't like to take them [penalties] because he had some bad experiences at his previous clubs so he never really wanted to take them. Whereas Suarez, I knew whenever I used to take them Suarez's head would be messed [up] and it would work because he would work even harder to score in open play."
Despite only missing two of his 21 penalties for the Reds in all competitions, Milner's decision to hand the responsibility over has certainly been vindicated with Salah missing just three of his 27 spot-kicks for the Reds.
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