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Jürgen Klopp described Mohamed Salah’s contribution to the 4-3 win over Leeds United on Saturday as one of his best performances so far for Liverpool.
The Reds kicked off their Premier League season in spectacular fashion, with Salah’s third hat-trick goal at Anfield, a penalty in the 88th minute, securing three points at the end.
Klopp’s men had previously been tied up three times by the visitors after two from Salah on either side of Virgil van Dijk’s header during a thrilling match.
During his post-match press conference, the manager reflected on Salah’s overall performance and explained why he expected such a challenging clash with Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds.
On whether the game was a good example of how difficult the season will be …
How difficult the season will be, we knew before the game. If it is a good example for the season, this specific game, I don’t know, because Leeds is special. I said it before the game and in the game everyone saw it obviously. I know what people are like and they are completely fine, really fine and absolutely fine; They say Leeds performed extraordinarily well and how can these mistakes happen? These kinds of things everyone says after games like this. We are not like that because we respect them so much and I knew they would cause us problems. On top of that, we obviously struggled in some defensive situations, that’s why they scored. But apart from that, I’m very happy with the things we did with the ball, really, because it was also very difficult to play against them with the ball. The way they play, the way they defend, the way they deal with challenges was really good, and by the way, for 95 minutes. We played very well in these situations, we scored four goals, we could and maybe we should have scored more because we had very good opportunities on top of that. So, I’m completely fine with the game. Offensively, it was good; And defensively, we can and will improve. So let’s move on.
On the kind of numbers Salah is hitting with Liverpool …
First of all, congratulations to him because he is a very special player. A very, very special player. The numbers tell the story a bit, the rest around you you probably don’t know. Today is a very good example. Yes, he put three more goals on his goal list, but the performance was absolutely exceptional in a match like this. That’s why he deserved today’s goals, 100%. Yes, two were penalties, one was a sensational finish, but he deserved these goals because he was constantly pressing and present, he caused massive problems for the opponent, he was the best in one-on-one situations, he played football. Of all the good performances Mo had for us, obviously this was without a doubt one of the best. So you should be proud of that because it is very special to have these kinds of numbers. ‘Let him continue’, I like to think about these moments, and this time I say it too.
On whether he anticipated that his team would have less possession …
Yeah, I was expecting that, to be honest, because they play … the setup is with a pretty deep last line, so if you jump there and don’t catch the ball, you just have a more open formation. It is clear that if you build like them, with their quality, which is really good, then you cannot constantly jump. But in the moments when we have the ball, could we have held the ball more often? I don’t know, it’s not too important, you have to do the right thing at the right time. With the ball we were a real threat in many moments. We wanted to be direct right now because we knew it was causing them a problem. If you don’t get intense in these situations, then they have most of the ball and probably the best situations or they cause you a problem when we have the ball. The game was as it should have been, minus the three errors around the goals. Other than that, it was exactly how it should be. We can’t just push them into their own box always because that’s where they play, it’s impossible, other teams do it in a similar way, so we needed a compact formation. In our situation we needed a 4-5-1, we needed both wingers to be 100 percent involved in defense, we all did that and it helped a lot. So, I’m fine with that.
On the approach of the Leeds game …
I said before the game, we will all fight them, 100 percent, because the way they play is awkward, let me put it that way. It is different from all other teams. We usually have three days to prepare for a game, a Premier League game, in all the different competitions. We feel that now too. Our guys came back from international service and we could only start preparing for the game now and it was quite difficult to deliver all the information that we thought they needed before the game. If you don’t respect the opponent, the opponent’s plan, and we always do, then they kill you like in football. I really liked the attitude of my team today, really. I think a lot of people would have thought: ‘We’ll see … Leeds … 16 years … first time in the Premier League against Liverpool that they became champions, let’s see how they are now, are they still a fighting unit?’ – and I have to say they just don’t stop and I like it. I like very much. Okay, we know we have to improve, we will work on that, but many things were already very good.
On Liverpool’s defensive performance …
I didn’t really see us fighting defensively, it’s just the way they play, you can’t defend it 100% all the time. The goals we conceded, the first goal, both wingers were deeper than the centrals and that should never happen in football, in fact. But then you need the opponent to use this situation and they did. The second goal I think was a misunderstanding between Virgil and Ali. Things like this can happen, they shouldn’t, but they can happen, and I don’t think we see these situations very often when these two kids aren’t exactly clear on what the other is doing. The third, we switched to Hendo, I think a minute before, or not long before, so they made it. It was a throw-in, our line-up wasn’t moving and we didn’t close a gap. So again, to use the situation like this, you need the game plan and also the courage of Leeds in this situation. I don’t think he was a forward if I’m right, he just showed up there, received the ball and finished it brilliantly. We let them run, that’s true, the two midfielders could have done it differently. The gap between Virgil and Joe was also great. It is defending, but it is not an excuse, it is only an explanation. The bottom row played for England, Holland and Scotland four days ago or whatever. All the best teams but all the different ways to defend, so it can happen then. If all these things are not really resolved: people say they have played 500 games together, but defending is not like riding a bicycle, you have to work on it constantly. As I said, [there’s] room for improvement.
