MY ACCOUNT
Mohamed Salah will go down as “one of the best strikers ever”, according to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
Salah scored twice at Tottenham to give Liverpool a 2-1 win in north London on Sunday, making it nine goals in his last eight appearances in all competitions.
The 30-year-old had a slow start to the campaign, with suggestions he was playing too wide, though he led the Premier League in chances created in the early weeks.
Speaking at a press conference after Liverpool’s win, Klopp was effusive in his praise of his player, who seems to have rediscovered his scoring touch.
“Even with a ‘slow start’, he was involved in most chances in Europe, in football, but we didn’t take them or he didn’t take them,” he said. “That can happen for a striker, it’s a completely normal phase.
“Everybody knows, when you look back on his career in four, five or six years, everybody will remember one of the best strikers you ever saw because the numbers will be absolutely insane.
“Tonight, what pleased me the most, he scored the two goals and then he played like a real, real team player. I am not surprised by it, but it is just important because he gets confronted with these questions as well… [I am] really pleased for him, top performance and showed an outstanding attitude tonight.”
It was Liverpool’s first away win in the Premier League this season at the sixth attempt (D2 L3), which led to Klopp letting off his signature fist-pumps to the away fans after the final whistle.
“Yeah. It was not my plan actually, I didn’t want to do it but I got carried away and I thought the people deserved a little bit [after] tough times,” he said. “[The fans] had now to travel a lot in the Premier League until they saw the first three points. So yeah, I got a bit carried away, but it was big, absolutely big.
“Before the final whistle I would not have been able to do that because I was really knackered, it was tough, a really tough game for everybody. Brilliant first half, a really, really good first half. Good football, controlled, top goals, world-class goals, and then we all know, Tottenham is coming back.”
Harry Kane scored with 20 minutes remaining to make it a nervy finish for the Reds, but they were able to close it out and seal a much-needed three points.
Liverpool sit eighth in the Premier League after a stuttering start, but Klopp thinks his team can take a lot of positives from the nature of their win in the capital.
“Last year we nearly won all four competitions, but drew twice against Tottenham, so winning here is incredibly difficult,” he added. “It is not about now that we have to play all the time like this or whatever. What we have to show is the attitude, the commitment to defending. That’s what we have to show all of the time, definitely, 100 per cent.
“What we have to show is that we are not punched too hard when you concede a goal. I liked that tonight; I didn’t want to concede a goal, but I thought the reaction afterwards was good… everybody was 100 per cent in and threw everything in and that’s what I liked the most.
“You cannot be consistent by just playing all the time outstandingly well, it’s all about showing the resilience we showed tonight. This is not the start or whatever, we are in a phase, we realised already and spoke about it, but for tonight we couldn’t reach more than three points. We got them and that’s massive.”
