Sadio Mane out to help Liverpool's Mo Salah cross 40 goals, the first since Ian Rush

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Bengaluru, April 4: Mohamed Salah could well become the first Liverpool player in 31 years to cross 40 goals in a season. Salah is just three short of reaching the 40-goal benchmark and with many more games to go this season, it's a given that the Egyptian will cross the mark in the coming weeks. And one player who is keen to help his teammate achieve that milestone is fellow winger Sadio Mane.

The last Liverpool great to achieve cross 40 goals was Ian Rush and it took him 57 appearances in 1986-87 season to reach the milestone. Salah has 37 goals in 41 appearances and Mane feels the 25-year-old has a lot more goals left in him.

"Hopefully he will score more than that," Mane was quoted as saying by the DailyStar. "He's a great player and he helps us to win the games especially today because he showed his quality and he can help the team. Everybody is happy to have Mo in the team so we are going to help him more to score more goals for us."

Mane's assists are necessary if Salah is to beat Kevin De Bruyne to the PFA Player of the Year award. Salah and De Bruyne are the primary contenders for the award and no other player appears to be in the reckoning.

De Bruyne has scored eight and provided 19 assists across all competitions this season. He has been the midfield general to Manchester City's title march. While most players might choose De Bruyne given that Manchester City will wrap up the title, Salah has a chance to win the same if he helps knock Manchester City out of the Champions League.

Crossing 40 goals is not the only thing that's Salah is set out to do this season. His winner for Liverpool in the 2-1 result against Crystal Palace last week saw him share a record of scoring in 21 different Premier League matches with five-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo and Robin van Persie. Both Ronaldo and van Persie set the record while playing for Manchester United.

Salah also shares the record for the most goals by an African player in Premier League with Chelsea star Didier Drogba.

The left-footed genius has also been involved in 38 goals (with 29 goals, 9 assists) in the Premier League, the most by any other player since Luis Suarez, who was involved in 43 goals (with 31 goals, 12 assists) in the fateful 2013-14 season.

It's doubtful that Salah will be able to score three goals against the defensively-solid Manchester City in their Champions League quarter-final. But one thing's for sure - Salah has his teammates' backing to end this Liverpool season on a high before the World Cup comes along.