Klopp: There's nothing to worry about with Salah form
Jürgen Klopp insists he is ‘completely relaxed’ about Mohamed Salah’s strike rate so far in 2018-19 as the forward aims to add to the three goals he’s already bagged this term.
The Egyptian netted 44 times in all competitions last season and began the new campaign with the opener in the 4-0 win over West Ham United.
Salah has since added two more to his tally – the match winner versus Brighton and Hove Albion and Liverpool’s third against Southampton – and Klopp is convinced the goals will soon begin to flow regularly once more.
Speaking in his pre-Manchester City press conference, the manager said: “Obviously, expectations changed, that’s normal. He set completely new standards last year [for goalscoring], but for all the rest [of his game] it’s what he did last year.
“Nobody expected 10 goals after five, six or seven games, so it was a nice surprise. Each striker could write a book about these moments when you score without knowing how exactly it works, how you did it, with each ball in a perfect way and stuff like that. It’s so rare when it happens like that; 98 per cent of a striker’s career is the hardest work and only two per cent is the kind of easy going stuff.
“It’s all good. The only thing that has massively changed is the kind of questions you ask. Last year, I don’t think he was a big story from the beginning to talk about. Then it started to become a slightly positive story, ‘wow, not bad’ and then ‘oh, even better’ and stuff like that. It all was a surprise.
“That’s the world out there and that’s how it is in my job. If I win games, I know everything about football. If I lose three in a row, people think I have no clue about football. Both are not true – the truth is always somewhere in between.
“I am completely relaxed. I didn’t say Mo should relax because he has to work hard, but that’s what he is doing. It is a completely normal situation, nothing to worry about and I am relaxed about it.”