Jurgen Klopp has revealed Liverpool never intended to substitute Mohamed Salah after the Egyptian scored the winner for the Reds in their 1-0 victory over Man City on Sunday.
A few minutes before his goal, the forward had reluctantly jogged over to the sidelines to be replaced after his number was shown on the board, with Liverpool introducing Darwin Nunez, Jordan Henderson and Fabio Carvalho as part of a treble substitution.
However, Klopp has revealed that Salah’s number 11 being shown was actually a mistake, and that he’d called the Egyptian over to the sidelines to instruct him about a change of role instead.
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“I really find this question interesting. Tell me your thoughts about that,” the German told reporters after the final whistle. “You think we put the 11 up so Mo has to get subbed but comes to me and says he doesn’t want to leave the pitch?
“How could that happen? What is the logical explanation for that? Yes, wrong number on the plate.
“I wanted to talk to Mo because his role changed. Darwin came on and Mo played 10 around Darwin and Darwin was running in behind. Mo was disappointed because he saw the number but I didn’t know about the 11 on the board. When I saw that, we could change it.”
With the treble substitution coming in the 73rd minute, Salah produced a moment of magic to win the game three minutes later as he turned Joao Cancelo after running onto Alisson Becker’s long ball, before beating Ederson when through one-on-one on goal.
Following on from his hat-trick off the bench against Rangers in midweek, Klopp dismissed suggestions that Salah was lucky because of a defensive error from the Man City defender, and took the opportunity to praise the Egyptian after utilising him centrally against Pep Guardiola’s side.
“Mo played an exceptional game, absolutely outstanding,” he said. “One of two strikers in the centre, today with Bobby, great. Top performance, the goal was world class.
“One of your colleagues asked if I thought we were lucky in the moment because Cancelo missed the ball. I didn’t see a player miss the ball, I saw a player using his body extremely well and beating the goalie in a one-on-one situation. Top class goal.
“The situation before, really unlucky he didn’t score already. Apart from that, good on the ball, constant threat in behind. Working extremely hard. Outstanding performance, it was really good.”
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