Jurgen Klopp Liverpool
Jurgen Klopp is hopeful that Mohamed Salah will remain at Liverpool for “a very long time”. The Egyptian has once again topped the Reds’ goalscoring charts this term, netting 24 times in all competitions. Tentative speculation over Salah’s future has been aired this season after an interview with Spanish publication AS in December. The forward was inevitably asked about an interest in one day playing for either Barcelona or Real Madrid, with Salah answering with a level of diplomacy.
Jurgen Klopp said: “I think Madrid and Barcelona are two top clubs. Who knows what will happen in the future, but right now I am focused on winning the Premier League and the Champions League with Liverpool again.”
Klopp has now suggested that his leading goalscorer will be sticking around for the long-term at Anfield.
Jurgen Klopp said: “It’s just a bit awkward when I have to praise my own players, which I like to do to be honest, but especially in Mo’s case, the numbers speak for themselves. Mo is not only a goalscorer, he has developed as a footballer as well. He is a very, very important player for us and hopefully he will be that for a very long time of course.”
Liverpool head to Sheffield having won just two of their nine Premier League games this calendar year. That run has seen them slip from top spot to sixth in the division ahead of the weekend’s round of matches and confidence is at a low ebb inside the Liverpool camp. Asked how he attempted to build that back up, Klopp said he has tried to stress the positive aspects of the performances across the last two months.
Jurgen Klopp added: “It’s not the same situation and the same idea behind [last season] but I still show the group positive things as well just because I want to keep them confident because results cannot give confidence that is clear. So where can you get it from? Being told about the good things in the games, that is clear. As long as we can keep them on the pitch we can play good football. We have to play successful football, I know that. We can make much better performances and much better decisions, I’ve said that already, but it is a completely different situation than it was last year, obviously. As long as my team shows me that they really, really want it and are full of desire to change the situation, I am completely on their side because then the rest we can change. It is not always in the time frame that the rest of the world wants, but we can change it and that is what we try.”
