Jurgen Klopp has argued that “the numbers and the performances cannot be the reason” why Mohamed Salah is overlooked by many as being a truly world-class talent.
Salah scored his 24th goal of the campaign in the Reds’ 2-0 victory over RB Leipzig in midweek, bettering his tally for the entirety of last season in doing so.
The Egyptian has now struck 118 times and laid on 41 assists in 186 games for Liverpool, sitting joint-13th – level with Ian St John – in the club’s all-time goalscorers list.
It is a running joke now that any stat relating to the Premier League comes with the qualifier that ‘only Mohamed Salah‘ has outperformed a particular player when it comes to the final third, but still he is not widely recognised as one of the best.
Even among Liverpool fans, Salah can still be underrated or perhaps taken for granted, but Klopp insists that is not the case within the club.
“You don’t have to ask me if or why he doesn’t get the credit. If he doesn’t get the credit, I don’t know,” he said.
“It would be really strange and really unexplainable why he shouldn’t get the credit. He gets the credit here, internally, for sure for all these things.
“He played an outstanding game against Leipzig, and not only because he scored. No, in all the other parts.
“Actually my favourite moment in the game, especially a knockout game, was when he won the headed challenge in our own box after 87 minutes or something like that, when Angelino was in his back and wanted to volley the ball in.
“He played an outstanding game. He gets all the respect from us.
“If you don’t give him the right amount of respect, you have to ask yourself why that is the case.
“The numbers and the performances cannot be the reason.”
