After Mohamed Salah set a new European record for goals scored by a player for an English club, Jurgen Klopp said that the striker combines a deep understanding of football with a youthful physique.
The Egypt international scored the game-winning goal in Thursday’s 5-1 Europa League victory over Toulouse after coming off the bench. This is his 43rd goal for the team in key European tournaments, breaking Arsenal’s 42-goal record held by Thierry Henry.
As his team prepares to play Nottingham Forest on Sunday, Klopp is taking pleasure in watching a guy who is developing into a more well-rounded player while maintaining physical traits that can compete with anyone.
“Off the pitch he behaves like a grown-up man but besides that he’s still a young player,” Klopp stated. “He looks great. Because he just stays in such terrific form, I believe that if we scan him, the majority of the bones are probably 19 or 20 years old.
“(He) understands how games work. We attempt to provide young players with that. When their 35-year-old football careers come to an end, they all have a great deal of knowledge, but the earlier you can obtain this information, the more valuable it is.
Additionally, Mo has a far better understanding of the areas and how players respond to him. This is crucial because even if he is unable to score, he can still pose a threat to us. Since Mo doesn’t seem to be a biological 30-year-old player, I am unable to compare him to other players of that age.”
Salah, who has drawn a lot of interest from the lucrative Saudi league, has already tallied nine goals this season across all competitions and is only five goals short of reaching 200 goals overall since joining Liverpool in 2017.
The 31-year-old was deemed “in all phases world-class” by Klopp, who also said, “We appreciate him and we will appreciate him even more after his career when we realize we saw something really special.”
Three points off the top of the Premier League standings heading into the weekend, Liverpool wants to demonstrate that they can successfully juggle a Europa League campaign with a domestic title quest.
He responded, “So far, we could do it.” “Thursday through Sunday isn’t the best, but we’ve known this for a long enough time, so it’s okay.
“A lot of the players who didn’t play (against Toulouse) will probably start on Sunday so for them they had if you want a day off, just warming up and kicking a few balls,” he stated.
“We’ll have a formal meeting to get ready for Nottingham.
“This year, we’re going to follow this rhythm. It’s best that we adjust to it as quickly as possible.”