Digne insists he isn’t fazed by former teammate Salah

Everton defender Lucas Digne insists that he will not be intimidated by the threat of Mohamed Salah on Sunday, when the Blues take on Liverpool at Anfield.

Digne, who joined from Barcelona in the summer, playing alongside Salah at Roma in the 2015-16 season, while the French full-back was on loan with the Giallorossi from Paris Saint-Germain.

Speaking of his time playing alongside the Egypt international, Digne admitted he came to England to play against the best players in the world, and confirmed that Salah doesn’t faze him.

As reported by ESPN, Digne said:

I know Mohamed Salah because I played one year with him in Rome. He’s a very good guy and a very good player, but you play football to play against the big players, against [Lionel] Messi, against Neymar.

I play football to play against the biggest players in the world and I came to England to play against the best strikers because, for me, the best football is in the Premier League.

When you play in the big games, it’s a very good thing for you as a player.

I play every game the same. I’m a defender and it’s down to the team. We work together and it’s not down to one player or two players. It’s down to the team and we need to work together.

Everton haven’t beaten Liverpool at Anfield since 1999, and Digne admitted that the club desperately want to break their hoodoo. He continued:

The stats are here to change. Maybe you can lose for one year, two years or three years, and the fourth you win and the stat is finished.

Football is like this and we need to change the past. We want to change and we want to win.

Liverpool play well now, but we play well too. We have a good mentality too and we work hard every week. I think we can change something. We have the mentality to win every game.

We went to Chelsea to win and proved we can win. We played well, we drew — it was a good result because Chelsea were unbeaten.

Before we played against Man [United], we played well before the referee made, for me, a mistake. It’s football. We play well against great teams and I think it’s big game this weekend and we do the same like always.