Jürgen Klopp on 'special' Mo Salah and being brave at Old Trafford
Jürgen Klopp feels Mohamed Salah's outstanding form so far this season has people believing 'something special will happen' when he takes possession of the ball.
The Egyptian has scored 12 goals in 11 appearances and set a new Liverpool record during Tuesday’s win against Atletico Madrid as he became the first player in the club’s history to net in nine consecutive matches.
Furthermore, Salah’s brace at Estadio Metropolitano took him to 31 strikes in the Champions League for the Reds, surpassing Steven Gerrard as our all-time record marksman in the competition.
The 29-year-old will be looking to add to his tally when Liverpool travel to Manchester United on Sunday, but Klopp also used the second part of his press conference duties on Friday to highlight the significant attacking threat the Old Trafford side will pose.
Read on for a summary of what the manager told reporters…
On whether he is now starting to ‘expect’ something to happen when Salah gets into a shooting position and if many players have made him feel that way before…
I said it a couple of times and it’s the truth: I’m blessed with incredible players that I worked together with during the times. But, no, when the ball went over all the players in that situation [for the first goal against Atletico] and Mo had to already run pretty quick to get it before the sideline and then he turned, it didn’t look for me like a proper goalscoring opportunity. But challenge by challenge it developed into that, so that’s the situation. That’s the difference between a moment where momentum is not on your side and when the momentum is on your side, we all know that. It’s all about the quality of Mo in this moment to do it, to try it and you can imagine how much all the players of Atletico knew about this ability and wanted to defend it, desperately, and still couldn’t do it. Pretty special, pretty special. Yes, I had that; I’m really happy and more than fine with the players I could watch through the times and being quite positive when they got the ball that something special will happen.
On Cristiano Ronaldo being regarded as one of the greats because of his longevity and if Salah can continue to perform at his level for a similarly long time…
Yes. You need luck because things can happen, injuries and stuff like this. But I think the professionalism of both is probably the one thing you can compare 100 per cent or say is probably the same. Mo is incredibly professional, he’s really the first in and very, very often the last out of all the players. He is constantly interested in all the different things he can do, he has to do to improve or keep the standard or to improve the standard, all these kind of things. I think he has still a lot to give, 100 per cent.
On the importance of Liverpool being at their best defensively on Sunday…
If you don’t defend well against United, I wouldn’t know a reason why we should get in the coach and go there, to be honest, because the quality they have offensively is absolutely ridiculous. Yes, you’re right, we have to consider that. I really don’t think it’s very likely that you score three goals at United but we never before a game think about scoring more than we do about defending. So, for us, it’s 100 per cent clear that to get in a game, to stay in a game and to win a game you have to defend on your absolute highest level. We have to focus on that but not only, because we have to create as well. We have to play football – very important – we have to be incredibly brave. Brave because each ball you lose against United is a massive threat, it’s a counter-attack threat with the speed they have and all these kind of things. It’s a proper task to play United but we still want to do it and are looking forward to it because it’s, how we all know, one of the biggest games in the world. It will be a good one.