Jurgen Klopp is relishing the prospect of fielding Liverpool’s new signing Mohamed Salah in Saturday’s Premier League opener away to Watford.
Salah joined the Reds from AS Roma in July, in a deal worth an initial £36.9 million, becoming the club’s new record signing.
The Egypt winger went on to score four times in six appearances for Klopp’s side in pre-season, averaging a goal every 79.3 minutes on the pitch.
It was an impressive start, and addressing Salah’s early impact as he previewed Liverpool’s trip to Vicarage Road on Friday, Klopp stressed he is looking to utilise his natural ability.
“First of all, what everybody can see, all his skills: speed, technical ability, finishing ability. He really showed up from the first day,” he told reporters.
“A few of these skills are really natural, that makes it easier for him to involve them in the game.
“I spoke to him a few times of course, but not in the early part of the pre-season, I didn’t immediately tell him what I want to see from him.
“[I said] ‘play’, and then we can talk about what I saw, and it was good.
“There were a lot of things in how we defend and how we need him to be involved in different situations.
“But offensively, he’s natural, and that’s really cool. We want to keep that, that’s how it is.”
Salah’s Egyptian compatriot and former Premier League striker Mido described the winger as “much quicker” even than his new team-mate, Sadio Mane.
And it is this remarkable pace that Klopp is most looking to harness as part of Liverpool’s new-look attacking line on Saturday.
“It makes us more difficult to defend, because speed is the most difficult thing to defend in football,” he explained.
“Because it creates spaces for all the rest. Just the threat of speed opens spaces in different areas, and we need to use them.
“It’s not about giving him the ball to run and do something, it’s about what happens when he is running, what happens to the formation of the opponent.
“Should we play the ball there? Or should we use the space he creates? That’s what makes our football, for us, more interesting.
“When Sadio is on the pitch we have it on two wings, that’s another good thing.
“So how we tried to develop our game now hopefully we can see it already at Watford.”
Fan Comments