Jurgen Klopp acknowledged telling Mohamed Salah to “stop defending” during their 6-1 Europa League demolition of Sparta Prague.
Liverpool entertained the eager Anfield crowd on Thursday night and within 14 minutes, The Reds went up 4-0 thanks to goals from the team’s front three—Salah, Cody Gakpo, and Darwin Nunez—who managed to find the scoresheet alongside academy graduate Bobby Clark.
With much of his 2024 already marred by an injury he sustained while representing Egypt in the Africa Cup of Nations, Salah made his first start for Liverpool since New Year’s Day.
Difficult Situation
Speaking on injuries and Salah’s fitness, Jurgen Klopp told reporters:
“I’m not sure what happened to Kostas, I’m sure that he will be fine though.
“For Bobby like I said he felt something.
“But it was intense for the boy, he was running around like crazy.
“Let’s hope that’s nothing.
“Besides that the subs for Joe [Gomez] was a precaution, Wataru [Endo] was a precaution, David was a precaution.
“And Mo already recovered in the second half so all good.
“Mo is a very experienced player.
“I told him if he has to stay on then he may have to play the full game.
“He did and it was the first time I told someone to stop defending.
“He actually then nearly made another goal but Cody was offside.
“He’s very experienced so he got easily over the line.
“He [Clark] played incredibly.
“It was his first goal, but he won the ball back after another one.
“He is the one I am worried a bit about. We wanted to take off Mo [Salah], but Bobby sits on the ground and says he feels something in the ankle.
“Hopefully, it is nothing.
“The steps the boy made though, pfff [wow].
“We’ve had such a difficult situation with all the injuries and then the boys stepped in and took their chances.
“So very happy with that, they were exceptional again.”
Hope
The mammoth win has propelled the Reds into the quarter-finals of the Europa League and one step closer to their mission of giving Klopp his dream farewell, with a quadruple to their name.
The German coach will be hoping that Salah can stay fit for the rest of the season and he will look forward to managing the Egyptian as much as possible before he leaves the club for good this summer.
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With the Egyptian still looking to return to full fitness, it may be possible that Klopp could rest his star winger in the upcoming weeks.
However, when the Reds take on Manchester United on Sunday, March 17, Salah will likely take the right wing from the start of the game.
