Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp urges Mohammad Salah to not get affected by Erling Haaland’s exploding form
Speaking ahead of the critical tie (h/t Liverpool Echo) against Arsenal on Sunday, Jurgen Klopp was asked about the goalscoring exploits shown by new Manchester Boy Erling Haaland and what it means for Liverpool talisman Mohammad Salah.
Haaland has taken the Premier League by storm with 20 goals in all competitions already, with 15 of those coming in the league.
Compared to Haaland, 3-time golden boot winner Mohammad Salah has added just two goals to his tally this season and Klopp has insisted that the Egyptian king accept the reality and not get his mind dwindled because of the exploding form shown by the Norwegian.
“Nobody in the world can cope with the Haaland situation at this moment. It’s crazy what he is doing.
I don’t think we should compare anybody with Haaland at this moment – at least I don’t.”
Mohammad Salah has been used to be the top player in the Premier League, on the lines of which other players were compared such has been his goalscoring exploits over the past few seasons.
However, Haaland has suddenly taken over the mantle since his move to the Premier League and the pressure for other star forwards Salah, Harry Kane and Heung-min Son amongst others has increased even further.
Adding his views on the situation and speaking about his leading goalscorer of the past few seasons, Klopp has defended Mohammad Salah’s recent form and defended him by claiming that just because the statistics do not favour the forward’s case, it does not mean that he has not been providing high-level contributions to the team.
“Mo wants to score goals. Definitely, desperately, definitely, 100 percent.You see how often he is involved in the passes for goals.
The problem is, that if he doesn’t score a goal, then no-one appreciates that.”
Klopp’s assessment of the situation does make sense when one watches how the team has been playing this season with Salah adopting a bigger responsibility of a creator than just a lethal goalscorer.
Klopp’s Liverpool have always been used to playing with a false nine but the departure of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino becoming a less influential figure and the signing of traditional no.9 in Darwin Nunez from Benfica has changed the way the team’s style of play.
This has subsequently required Salah to mend his skill set in favour of helping his team further and his goal-scoring exploits have taken a hit due to it. Anyone who watches us play would tell you that Mo doesn’t play as centrally as he used to before and is quite wide at times.
Hopefully, our European win over Rangers FC was the starting point that can potentially change the way the season has been so far – for us and for the former Chelsea star. He has shown time and again that poor goal-scoring runs don’t bring him down and we can expect to kick into his goal-scoring form soon.
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Next up is a very important fixture against league leaders Arsenal and anything other than a win would be a hard pill to swallow, considering the gap that will be established in the league between the two sides.
