Jürgen Klopp offered his support to Mohamed Salah after substituting him in Liverpool’s 1-1 draw at Chelsea, and backed the reigning footballer of the year to overcome his first difficult spell since joining the club.
Klopp, who replaced the Egyptian with Xherdan Shaqiri just before the midway point of the second half, acknowledged that Salah had fallen below his usual standards and said he could not understand some of the player’s decision-making in dangerous areas of the pitch.
“It’s always tactical,” Klopp said of his decision to remove the player. “He was not injured. I know you will make a fuss of it, but that’s football. It was not the best game of Mo’s career, that’s 100%. But coming into a game like this, constantly in [potentially scoring] situations, that makes him a world-class player. You fail, you miss, that happens – I’ve no problem with that. But he wants to be decisive. He wants to score in these situations.
“It is like riding a bike. It is not like you wake up in the morning and you cannot finish any more, or you cannot ride a bike any more. You need to work for these moments when it is clicking. And that is the moment he is in.”
Daniel Sturridge, an 86th-minute substitute, salvaged a draw for Liverpool by scoring within two minutes of entering the pitch and Klopp praised the former England international. “He is a fantastic footballer who has had a full pre-season and is in the best shape since I have known him. I am really happy for him.”
Klopp was less impressed to be asked if Liverpool had deserved a draw. Maurizio Sarri, Chelsea’s manager, described it as a fair result but Klopp disagreed. “I am a bit angry because someone else [a television interviewer] also asked me if we deserved a point. Of course we deserved a point, we would have deserved to win. We didn’t but as long as we play like we did tonight we will win football games.”
Eden Hazard had opened the scoring for Chelsea and is now the Premier League’s leading marksman, having scored six goals, as well as getting the winner against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup at Anfield on Wednesday. “I think he’s able to score 40 goals,” Sarri said. “He has to score another 33 and he’s trying to do it.”
