Mohamed Salah suggests Florian Wirtz shirt number with tease towards Liverpool team-mate

Mohamed Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai

Mohamed Salah has teased Dominik Szoboszlai after Liverpool completed the club-record signing of Florian Wirtz. The Reds announced the signing of the German from Bayer Leverkusen on Friday in a deal worth up to £116m.

The 22-year-old is expected to be utilised at number 10 by Arne Slot - a position Szoboszlai predominantly played in last season.

Wirtz’s official squad number for Liverpool will be confirmed later this summer, with the German having already taken to social media to dismiss suggestions that he was demanding the number 10 shirt at Anfield - which is already worn by Alexis Mac Allister.

Salah

"Who says I want the [ten emoji] I respect players,” “Don't believe everything what's written [clown emoji]."

But with Wirtz’s transfer now confirmed, Salah has joked that the German could instead take the number eight jersey off Szoboszlai on top of his starting position.

Commenting on a post on the club’s official Instagram account of Wirtz looking at a Liverpool shirt hung up in the dressing room, the Egyptian tagged

Szoboszlai as he wrote: “Number 8?” along with a crying laughter emoji.

Szoboszlai reacted to Wirtz’s arrival last week when he warned that he had no intention of giving up his place without a fight.

Szoboszlai

“No, I don’t think so,”

“Of course, if they buy a player for €150m they probably won’t keep him on the bench

“But then we have to find a way to play together.

“If you say that it will be difficult for me, then we’ll wait and see how it will be after pre-season. In the end, you might be right but I don’t give up easily.

“I think he knows that getting into a Premier League-winning team is a hard job and takes work.”