Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah believes that Jurgen Klopp’s tactical nous is what has helped get the best out of him and fellow strike partners Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino at the Reds.
The Egypt international leads the Premier League scoring charts this season with 17 goals to his name, with his Senegalese and Brazilian counterparts having mustered 12 and nine respectively.
The combined strength of the trio netted 91 goals across all competitions last season, to secure a top-four finish and a place in the Champions League final, and Salah now states that it is the manager’s smarts that have allowed him to maximise their potential.
“I think he [Klopp] build the team, he made the team now fighting for the Premier League. Last season we fight for the Champions League, so I give him more credit,” the striker said in an interview with ESPN Brasil.
"He made the game maybe easier for us. He knows how to rotate the positions a lot.
“I play No. 9 sometimes, I play on the wing, I play on the left side. We have a good connection together. We are a front three and we know how to play with each other."
Further expounding on his relationship with Firmino, who has been a mainstay of the Liverpool team since arriving from Hoffenheim in 2015, Salah added: “He sits next to me in the game, dressing room.”
“He doesn't talk English much to the players. But we talk together maybe everyday. In the game I think we played together for one year.
“He gave me, I think, the most assists of the team and I gave him the same. We play close to each other, we know how to play.
“I think when football players play with each other they know how to play. It doesn't matter about the language, it doesn't matter how to talk to each other. But we know each other, we expect the movement from each other.”
The trio have fired Liverpool onwards towards what could be their first league title in almost three decades, with the Reds possessing a game in hand over first-place Manchester City, who they only trail on goal difference.
“There is pressure because you want to win the Premier League,” Salah added. “But now it's more because you're just close to the end, so there is more pressure. But at the end of the day, the next game, the three points, is very important, like the first game of the season.
“But the people don't take it like that. They take it like: 'OK, there's a pressure now'. But in the beginning of the season you need to win the game to get the three points to be here now. So now you are top of the table or second and you have one game in hand, so you just need to be calm and play football.”
“It's a dream, to be honest. It's one of my dreams when I came [to Liverpool]: To win the Premier League. I said that last season.
“Maybe the people were saying it was crazy, but it was in my mind always to come here and win the Premier League. I said it last season, I said it at the beginning of the season and now we are close. I hope we are going to win it. We do our best to win it.”
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