Jurgen Klopp will unleash the real Mohamed Salah on Manchester City at Wembley this weekend.
And the Liverpool manager is confident the Egyptian will rediscover his true form, not only in the titanic FA Cup semi final showdown, but on Liverpool’s history making quest over the next month.
Salah was left out of the Reds starting XI for the midweek Champions League contest with Benfica, but there is no doubt he will return on Saturday and Klopp is in no doubt Salah will find his best form. the Anfield boss explained, as he spoke honestly about Salah’s dip in form of late 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. In our business the problem we have is that in January he had the most intense period of his whole career - the (Africa Cup of Nations) tournament went to the wire, Egypt played in the final, 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 ok for the bout, but now we are in a period where there is no down time and that’s completely normal (at this stage of the season)."
Salah has - incredibly, given his astonishing record - gone 753 minutes without a goal in open play for Liverpool. And he has looked devoid of both confidence and energy at times. Yet there were flashes of the old Salah returning against City in the Premier League last Sunday, when he produced an assist for Sadio Mane, and almost created a winner for Diogo Jota. And Klopp says the answer is to ensure the record-breaking forward knows he can be himself, and continue to attempt the things which have taken him to the summit of world football.
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Klopp said: “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. We have a final every game from the beginning of January - that is crazy! My God, I would love to have a full week to train. But we don’t have it, it’s fine and we deal with it. Mo will deal with it.”
Klopp argued it was right to rest Salah for the Benfica game, and his thinking is clear: small margins will decide such huge games as those against City - which arguably pitches the two best teams in world football against each other. He also rested Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho, Thiago, Salah, Sadio Mane and his two full-backs, and he believes that could provide the edge.
He said: “These small things are really important and make all the difference, and being ready for that all the time is really difficult, but very interesting and exciting too. If seven players who didn’t start (against Benfica) are fresh. Great. Seven more players got some rhythm. Great. We are in the semi-final on Saturday. Outstanding!” All seven will return, and Klopp seems certain to play Roberto Firmino as his front line striker ahead of Diogo Jota, after the Portuguese forward took a knock in the Champions League game.
