Jarrod Bowen has said that he’s been drawing inspiration from Liverpool forward Mo Salah in trying to enhance his positioning in order to improve his goalscoring return.
The West Ham winger is reportedly admired by the Anfield hierarchy (The Athletic), and it’s not unthinkable that the Reds could swoop for him if they eventually cave to the anticipated revival of Saudi Pro League interest in the Egyptian superstar.
Speaking to TNT Sports, the Irons attacker said that he’s been analysing the 31-year-old’s play to try and refine his own qualities in the final third.
Bowen said: “I always want to score goals more than anything. I want to score every single game. I’m always usually in a position in the box where I know that a chance might fall to me.
“It’s something I’ve been working on myself really with my dad; he speaks to me about it, he was a centre-forward and he understands it. We just have little chats about different runs to make and where to be in the box, and always be in the box. I think Salah’s the best at it and obviously [Erling] Haaland, too.
“They’re always positioning themselves where they think they’re going to score a goal. People say it’s scoring from four yards out but there’s a special art to it of picking up that space in the box and kind of anticipating where the ball’s going to be.
“So definitely something that I’ve not been working on the training pitch, just more probably looking at videos and having a chat about it really.”
Speak to any prolific striker at the highest level and they’ll tell you that the runs you make off the ball are every bit as important as the technique used for applying the finish to score the goals which win matches consistently.
Salah’s finishing ability is beyond question, and as any Liverpool fan will testify, it’s also his intelligence out of possession which enables him to rack up the monstrous goal tallies that he clocks every single season.
Bowen is no slouch himself in the final third, scoring six goals in the current Premier League campaign already and 101 in his senior club career (Transfermarkt), but he could hardly wish for a better role model when it comes to trying to reach that next rung of the ladder in terms of overall quality.
It’ll be intriguing to see if the West Ham attacker improves even further upon his current scoring rate so far this term, and how reminiscent his game might become of the Reds’ mercurial number 11.
#Ep94 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones🎙️