Jurgen Klopp is convinced Mohamed Salah will finish the season strongly as he explained why the Liverpool forward has been taken out of the firing line in recent weeks.
Jurgen Klopp said: “I know that Mo will finish strong. It’s just at the moment we have to reset because each game for us is a final. From the beginning of January, that is crazy. The problem we have is that in January he had the most intense period in his whole career. The tournament went to the wire. They played in the (Africa Cup of Nations) final, they had all these 120 minutes, the role he has is super, super massive. There is a huge responsibility on his shoulders with dressing room meetings and stuff like this with no recovery at all. Then you have the issue of being a superstar in your own country and everyone wants something of you. It is all super intense. Again – that is okay for the boys. But now we are in a period where there is no down (time) and that is completely normal. A player like Mo who likes to dribble – and he is really good, he scored outstanding goals with dribbling. Do I say to him ‘don’t dribble?’. No! It is dribble in the right moments and keep the ball, keep it simple – all these kind of things. That is a process. It’s not a long process, a week or two.”
Salah is likely to be one of several players returning for Liverpool at Wembley having been rested in midweek, with Andy Robertson, Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho, Thiago Alcantara and Sadio Mane also pressing for a start. Liverpool are hopeful Diogo Jota will have overcome the knock suffered against Benfica.
