Press conference'Insane' Salah numbers, substitutes impact and Norwich analysis

The Liverpool manager was asked about Mohamed Salah being on the brink of 150 goals for the club, and the impact of his substitutes during the midweek Champions League victory at Internazionale.

He also assessed the challenge he expects from the Canaries, who are now led by Dean Smith, in the 3pm GMT kick-off at Anfield tomorrow.

Read a summary of Klopp’s chat with the media below…

On Salah being one goal away from 150 for Liverpool and where he can be in the club’s all-time greats…

I’m only seven years here now, the club is so much older and there were so many great players here. That this team is one of the better ones in the wonderful history of this club is clear, and that Mo has a massive part in that is clear as well. The numbers speak for themselves, it’s absolutely insane. When you say now 150, I thought it was only recently we spoke about 100. It’s obviously a massive number and hopefully he can do that tomorrow.

On whether the analysis shows ‘many differences’ in Norwich since Smith took charge…

Yes and no. Of course, you all know how much I like and respect Daniel Farke, who is now somewhere in Russia working. He did obviously an incredible job there but the start of the season for Norwich was obviously pretty tricky. And then Dean came in and Dean, wherever he was in football he had success because he is good, really good. The things he is doing are really good, they brought in a few new players, very interesting signings anyway from the first day. Two of them I know pretty well, with Sargent and Rashica. It’s a really good football-playing side; they didn’t get the result often enough, that’s why they have the points tally they have, but it’s still a really good football-playing side.

When you think about Norwich, they just will not stop believing in staying in the league and I admire that actually, I really like that. You can see that in the way they play, it’s a very positive style. Yes, pretty direct as well but if you let them play with all the guys they have in midfield and then with the strikers up front, then they play. If you give them the chance to go in behind your last line they will go, because they have – especially with Rashica and Pukki – proper speed there. So we have to be pretty much everywhere 100 per cent because you try to avoid these passes in behind. But if you do that, you have to make sure that you have a really good set-up for that. We cannot ignore our situation; we played on Wednesday night and only came back yesterday because of the wind. So now we play tomorrow again, so it’s just for different reasons a difficult game for us. But I really hope for the support, that however windy it will be that the crowd pushes us even more.

On the opening goal against Inter showing Roberto Firmino’s attitude and worth…

Bobby is Bobby. If you would know him better you would be even more positive about him because he’s just an incredible person. You could see when he came on it was the most difficult position pretty much on the pitch because Diogo got injured in these kind of fights in the first half. Then Bobby came on and it’s really tricky to keep the ball there and we still needed to play in these areas. When he scored the goal, you could see everything is back. That was really nice and then when Bobby is in the mood that helps the team massively.

I’m not sure if any of the players should think, ‘Maybe I will not get a lot of minutes, so I should use the few I get’ because you never know. And especially with the quality of Bobby, he could play in this team – he could be in each line-up of this team every day because of his quality. It was maybe one of the most important away goals we scored so far because of how the game went. It calmed everything down; Bobby scored and then in that moment we got the momentum back 100 per cent in this game. That’s how it is in these tight fights with a strong opponent, you need an opener. And we were all very happy, how you can imagine, that Bobby scored. With Bobby there is always this extra thing because of how unselfish he is – everybody thinks, ‘Come on, Bobby, from time to time you should make it yourself.’ That’s exactly what he did there and really good.

On Jordan Henderson’s impact off the bench at San Siro and his inspiring role for other players…

To be honest, they all do. I love Hendo to bits, that’s how it is. But how he reacted, yes, it’s true it’s a perfect example. He didn’t start. I didn’t ask him, ‘Do you expect to start?’ or whatever but I know that’s how the players are and how he is. Obviously he expected to start, that’s clear, and then didn’t start. Then you come on and make that [performance] and the whole world asks you the question: why didn’t he start? That’s exactly what a player has to do, how you have to react. That was a perfect example but not only him. Naby came on and had the same influence, was brilliant when he came on. And on top of that, Luis. And Bobby scored the goal.

That’s what you need because you can have the best squad in the world – I don’t know where that is – but you can’t have it if the boys are not happy with the situation in the squad that you have all of a sudden so many players available in your position. If the players lose confidence in these moments when they don’t start, they have a problem. If the same 15 play all the time, when you are winning they are full of confidence; yes, they are tired but they are full confidence. But now you have to get it from somewhere else, that’s as well. That’s how I understand it. If you come on you have to do exactly what the five boys in the end did when they came on against Inter.

On whether Caoimhin Kelleher will play a competitive or non-competitive game before the Carabao Cup final…

He’s used to that. He always plays when he’s not [been] playing before. He’s used to that. No, no plans. Hopefully we don’t have to do it, not because I don’t trust Caoimh – it would mean something happens to Ali and I hope that will not happen.