Jurgen Klopp believes Mohamed Salah remains “under-appreciated”, having earlier compared the Liverpool star’s development to that of Robert Lewandowski.
Salah took his goal tally for the season to 30 by scoring in the Reds’ 4-2 win over Manchester United on Thursday night.
In 200 games since moving to Anfield, the Egyptian has netted 124 times, and with 21 in the Premier League this term, he is in line to pick up his third Golden Boot award in four years.
What’s been said?
Klopp was asked about Salah on Friday at a press conference to preview Liverpool’s weekend trip to West Brom.
It was suggested that his omission from many respected pundits’ ‘team of the season’ suggested there was still a section of the media which didn’t fully acknowledge the 28-year-old’s remarkable consistency.
“Yes, of course,” Klopp said. “But a team has 11 players. I don’t know what they did or who did it, but they have to pick a team and it’s a strong league.
“Mo again played an exceptional season, and if we would have played on a more consistent level then his numbers would have been different, and even better!
“Is he sometimes under-appreciated? Probably yes, but that’s not for me to change. Other people make decisions about that. I have no influence. I’m not sure if it’s the most important thing.
“Would he deserve it? Yes, but I have no idea who is in that team so I can’t really say much about that.”
What about the Lewandowski comparison?
Earlier, Klopp was asked where Salah ranked in terms of his greatest ever signings as a manager.
He replied: “Top – absolutely top.
“But it is not about signing. You can sign a player but then we all are responsible, so the player obviously is as well and the coaches, to make it happen.
“Let me say it like this: two players, there’s Robert Lewandowski, who I signed for a different amount of money years ago – well, not years ago, but it feels like – who had an incredible development from a different level, but an incredible development.
“With Mo, [to go] from the guy who scores from time to time and is a really good football player to this goalscoring machine is a massive development.
“He is an outstanding signing, but for sure the way he developed, the way he treats himself, the game preparation, the training preparation, training attitude and all these kind of things, that’s exceptional.
“That’s a real role model and he deserves all that, absolutely.”
