MY ACCOUNT
Jurgen Klopp hopes Mohamed Salah is close to “exploding” into a rich vein of goalscoring form, but believes comparisons with Manchester City talisman Erling Haaland are unfair.
Salah shared the Premier League’s Golden Boot with Son Heung-min after scoring 23 goals in the competition last term, but has only found the net twice in seven outings this season.
The Egyptian’s diminishing returns have mirrored those of his team, with Liverpool sitting 13 points behind City – with a game in hand – ahead of Sunday’s trip to Arsenal.
Haaland’s arrival has taken City to new heights this campaign, with the Norwegian hitting 15 goals in his first nine Premier League games, and Klopp believes any comparisons with Salah would be unhelpful.
“With Mo, I hope it’s like us, we are close to exploding,” Klopp said. “Whose season was it yet? From our side, nobody.
“Mo is like this, even when his goalscoring numbers aren’t crazy, often he’s involved, it’s just the problem that if you don’t score around that, nobody appreciates that.
“Nobody in the world can cope with the [Erling] Haaland situation, it’s crazy what he’s doing.
“He’s an exceptional player in an exceptional team and I don’t think we should compare anyone with that at the moment.
“Mo wants to score goals desperately, 100 per cent, that will never change. Call him in 20 years, it will be the same.”
Liverpool approach their trip to the Emirates Stadium having recorded two draws and one defeat in their first three away outings of the Premier League campaign.
Not since 2010-11, under Roy Hodgson, have Liverpool failed to win any of their first four away league games in a single season.
Meanwhile, Saturday represented the seventh anniversary of Klopp’s appointment at Liverpool, and the German left each of his two previous posts – at Mainz and Borussia Dortmund – before bringing up an eighth year at the helm.
Klopp, however, insisted Liverpool’s struggles have nothing in common with those of his former clubs, saying: “The situation in the clubs was very different.
“A seven-year spell was not planned or because I lost energy or these things. I was manager at Mainz and after three years, we got promoted to the Bundesliga then three years later we got relegated.
“We tried one more year and the club needed a change. Players left us for the Bundesliga, so they needed a fresh start, definitely.
“I was full of energy. I went directly to Dortmund and it was all fine. [It was] seven years and it was just a situation that players constantly got bought by other clubs.
“It was a really hard job to do, instead of developing a team, constantly making two steps back. It was really intense and really exhausting.
“I can understand that I left after seven years, and now we are in a difficult situation, but, if you think twice about it, you realise the situation is completely different.
“Being here for seven years is intense, no doubt about it. But it’s nice as well, I got so many things back. If there’s one club that has a chance to go through it together, it’s us.”
