Klopp: Mo has matured - and we're the lucky beneficiaries
Mohamed Salah’s increased level of footballing maturity has enabled him to develop since his time at AS Roma, Jürgen Klopp feels.
The prolific Egyptian returns to Stadio Olimpico for Wednesday's Champions League semi-final second leg a Liverpool player, and looking to add to a phenomenal tally of 43 goals for his club this season - two of which came in last week's first meeting at Anfield.
That number so far during 2017-18 outstrips Salah’s total of 34 goals he scored across two campaigns with Roma and, during his pre-match press conference at the Olimpico on Tuesday, Klopp was asked to identify the reasons for the No.11’s improvement.
“He has matured. He got confidence here. He came from Chelsea to Florence and played a good season, not as good as a season at Rome, and then he grew up and is now the player he is,” the manager said.
“We are the lucky guys who have him now in the team, that’s how it is. It’s not that I would’ve explained to him exactly how to score goals, he knew that before already, but each striker in the world doesn’t start as an 18-year-old boy as the goal-getter.
“He needs to make his own experiences and that’s what Mo did in very difficult circumstances. Coming early from Egypt to Switzerland and doing all that journey, and carrying all that responsibility for all the people, for a whole country, and he is really quite cool with it.
“At the end he has good teammates - they love helping him and they love how he helps them. That’s it.”
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Klopp also praised Salah’s willingness to carry out defensive duties as well as providing Liverpool with a razor-sharp cutting edge when teaming up with the likes of Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane.
“Each player has to do the job. Each attacking player, each striker needs to defend and Mo is doing that, but does Roberto Firmino defend more, or Sadio Mane defend more in a specific situation? Yes, they do,” the boss continued.
“But if you look then when Roberto Firmino is around, he sends Mo Salah up front and tells him ‘I close the gate for you, wait there, I bring you the ball’. That’s how a good team works and it’s not that he’s out of any duties defensively.
“Even if we defend with all players, it doesn’t mean that all players are deep in your own box. It only means that a few are immediately involved in defending and then you need immediately options when you win the ball.
“Where can you bring the ball? Where can you play the ball? That’s what Mo is doing pretty well and that was the reason why we changed the system at [Manchester] City during the first half, and why he was in the right position to score at least two goals at Anfield against Rome, because he was in that quite advanced position.
“He is not free of duties, he is involved in defending. But we have players who are more involved in that, that’s true.”