Liverpool forwards Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah’s goalscoring form is currently at completely opposite ends of the goalscoring spectrum but manager Jurgen Klopp is happy with both of them. Mane’s two goals in the FA Cup semi-final victory over Manchester City at Wembley took his tally to four in as many matches, while his team-mate has now gone six games without a goal and his last from open play was in mid-February.
Jurgen Klopp said: “I have known Sadio nearly six years, as far as I know he never needed any kind of competition to try to be the best version of himself. He played for a long time pretty much all games when he was fit and performed on an incredibly high level consistently. Bringing in Luis, I am not sure it affected that part of his game, I don’t know. That was not the reason for bringing in Luis. No, I don’t think Luis is the reason Sadio scored four goals but somehow, maybe because Luis obviously can keep a last line pretty busy that then opens up gaps for other players. Sadio as well had some physical struggles since he came back (from the Africa Cup of Nations); he didn’t feel it but we could see he could not use his immense physicality week in, week out or every three days – that was the problem. I really felt before the game against City ‘OK, that looks like Sadio physically’ and that is why he could play the game he played. He was super-difficult to defend and very helpful and incredibly important in our defending because the first goal he scored, you only can score if you try to get there and he did that and you only do this run if you feel fresh enough to do it.”
