Mohamed Salah Calm Despite Poor Scoring Record Against Manchester United

Mohamed Salah is unconcerned by his scoring drought against Manchester United ahead of Sunday's trip to Old Trafford, saying his club's success is more important than any individual plaudits.

The Egypt international has lost once, won once and drawn once in three encounters with United and is yet to find the back of the net against the Red Devils, but he told Premier League Productions (h/t Goal's Chris Burton) the title remains Liverpool's greatest priority:

"As I've said before, for me, the record is not that important. Being the top scorer is important, but it never counts as No. 1 – the Premier League is No. 1.

"If we win 1-0, 2-0 or 3-0 and anyone else scores, I don't mind, I would be very, very happy. For me, the team is the most important thing.

"I hope I can score [Premier League goal numbers] 50, 51, 52… but the most important thing is to win [our] game. We need to stay first in the table and that's something very important for us."

Jurgen Klopp's side beat United 3-1 at Anfield in December and travel to Old Trafford level on points with Premier League leaders Manchester City with a game in hand, though they trail on goal difference.

Salah has bagged 17 league goals so far this season and shares the lead with City's Sergio Aguero as the top scorer in the competition.

All three of the 26-year-old's appearances against the Red Devils have come since his 2017 transfer to Liverpool from AS Roma. He was an unused substitute for former club Chelsea against United in October 2014.

Rich Fay of the Manchester Evening News provided more context as to how United have presented themselves as a bogey team for Salah up until now:

Salah is expecting a difficult challenge from United, who are unbeaten in nine Premier League matches under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer:

"Everyone knows about Liverpool and Manchester United. They have good players – even before they won their last 10/11 games, they have had very good players from the beginning of the season.

"They have a good team and now they are winning, winning, winning, so they have confidence, but at the end of the day we want to win the game. Whoever we play against, we want to win the game."

The attacker sat down with Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher ahead of the game and said he was "absolutely" aware of how badly fans of rival clubs United and Everton wanted to prevent Liverpool from lifting the Premier League trophy:

The Reds haven't won a top-flight title since 1990, and the emergence of Salah—who scored 44 goals in his debut season on Merseyside—has led to hope that wait could soon end.

Despite failing to have a direct impact in front of goal when facing United thus far in his career, Salah was picked by Neil Atkinson of The Anfield Wrap as the man who will decide Sunday's fixture, per Sky Sports News:

Things are at least looking up for Salah against United after he played his part in December's 3-1 victory, in which Xherdan Shaqiri came off the bench to score a decisive brace.