Former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has opened up on his experience managing Mohamed Salah, claiming he wanted the latter to try and take risks during games, even if he failed. Klopp also waxed lyrical about Salah’s impact at Anfield, admitting he witnessed ‘greatness’, despite the 34-year-old not being a perfect player all the time in his eyes.
Klopp’s Liverpool signed Salah from Roma in the summer of 2017 for a reported transfer fee of £36.5 million. This proved to be a bargain, as the Egyptian King established himself as one of the greatest players in Premier League history over the next nine years.
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Salah recorded 257 goals and provided 123 assists in 442 appearances across all competitions, helping the Reds win nine trophies, including two Premier League titles and the UEFA Champions League.
During a recent interview with ESPN, Klopp was asked about how he used to set his team up when Salah wasn’t performing well. The German replied:
“It’s easy to go and put a finger in each situation and say, ‘here he should do better, here should do better.’ But when you work on a daily basis with him, you’re used to things. I want him to try. I want him to fail. If you don’t fail, you don’t take risks. If you don’t take risks, where’s excitement? Where’s the outcome? How can you reach the next level if you don’t try things other people can’t do?”
“Did he perform every day? Probably not. But I can’t remember one player to be honest who did that … Of course, as a coach, you stand out there and you think, ‘Yeah, he could do this better, he could do that better.’ But looking back, we just witnessed greatness.”
He added:
“That’s the truth as well. That’s the truth as well because most of the time he delivered in an incredible way and most of the time he’s got incredible goals. Most of the time he decided games for us and most of the time he pushed us to the next level. He is until today an incredible professional. So that’s it. And none of us, nobody was perfect, not Messi or Ronaldo, not Mo Salah They are not perfect, but they are closer than us to that.”
Despite helping Liverpool win the 2024-25 Premier League title, Salah opted to depart Anfield as a free agent this summer. He is currently representing Egypt at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
“It has to click” – Klopp reveals what Andoni Iraola will need to succeed at Liverpool
From the aforementioned interview, Jurgen Klopp also touched upon what Liverpool’s new head coach, Andoni Iraola, will need to succeed at Anfield. Klopp backed the Spaniard to be a success, but admitted that the latter will need some luck to have a long-term future at the club.
Klopp was asked about why Liverpool had a poor campaign last season, in which they finished trophyless and scraped a fifth-place finish, to which he said:
“No idea. I’m not close enough to judge that. I was super happy that they won a league a year before and I have no idea what was wrong that the year after. So I think nobody was very happy with the season. That was obvious, but they still qualified for the Champions League and that’s a great success.”
He continued:
“So now you can go again and have a new manager and Andoni Iraola who is a great coach as well, like Arne Slot is, but it has to click. It has to work together for a long time and for that and you need luck.”
Arne Slot was sacked as Liverpool manager at the end of last season. As a result, the Reds opted to replace him with Iraola earlier this month, following his impressive tenure at Bournemouth.
Edited by Silas Sud
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