Jurgen Klopp has told Mohamed Salah he can’t compare to Manchester City ’s goalscoring sensation Erling Haaland.
Salah, 30, won his third Golden Boot award last season - but has scored just twice in the Premier League for Liverpool this term. Thirty-five miles away at the Etihad, Haaland has already found the net 19 times for the champions - 14 of them in the league.
Kop boss Klopp is backing his Egyptian forward to “explode” - but insisted he cannot not measure himself against City’s new talisman. Klopp said: “With Mo, I hope he is close to exploding. But nobody in the world can cope with the Haaland situation at this moment.
“It’s crazy what he is doing. When he scored his second goal in the Champions League (against Copenhagen) he shook his head as if to say ‘I can do whatever I want and the ball bounces straight to my feet.’ Haaland is an exceptional player in an exceptional team, so that obviously works pretty well. I don’t think we should compare anybody with Haaland at this moment - at least I don’t.
“Mo wants to score goals. Definitely, desperately, definitely, 100 percent - and that will never change. Call him in 20 years and it will be the same. That will never change. With Mo, it is like this: even if his goalscoring numbers are not that crazy, you see how often he is involved in the passes for goals. The problem is, that if he doesn’t score a goal, then no-one appreciates that.”
Klopp criticised his team for failing to defend properly as Liverpool lost more ground on early pacesetters Arsenal with a 3-3 home draw against Brighton last weekend. The Reds bounced back by beating Rangers 2-0 in the Champions League - with Salah scoring from the spot. They travel to face Arsenal at the Emirates with their manager calling on them to follow Salah’s lead when it comes to doing the dirty work.
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Klopp said: “From my point of view, the way Mo defended against Rangers was at an incredibly high level. And if this team defends at a high level, then we are able to play some good stuff. Forget about Mo scoring or losing the ball here or there. He makes three of four key passes - and that’s exceptional. As a coach, it is easier for me to see what he does because I watch the whole game again and not just the highlights.
“It means I see those little things - so for me, Mo is fine. We are just used to having a specific picture of him in our minds, but he is a human being. We have to make sure that the team performs at a level where every player can be the best version of themselves.” Liverpool are 11 points behind Arsenal - and Klopp is a big admirer of the way Mikel Arteta has rebuilt the Gunners after a tough start to his tenure. But Klopp will be interested to see how the Londoners can handle an increasingly busy schedule in the run-up to the World Cup.
He said: “Arsenal is a big club, there’s no doubt about that, and we have big games against them. They’re a great club. Under Arsene (Wenger) they stood for a specific style of football. There have been a few changes but pretty quickly they have found their way back. They play in the Europa League again this season. They didn’t make it last year into the Champions League, but now they are ready for the next step. We will have to see how they deal with three or four competitions.”
