WE KNEW WE’D BE OK WITH MO AWAY
LIVERPOOL assistant boss Pep Lijnders claims he never doubted the Reds would cope without Mohamed Salah.
While Salah (above) has been on duty at the Africa Cup Of Nations, Liverpool have won three games out of three. And they’ll have to cope without the Egyptian for longer than expected because he is out for four weeks with a muscle injury.
Lijnders always had faith in Liverpool’s other four attackers and no wonder – Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota, Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz have 36 goals and 14 assists between them and the Reds will rely on them in tonight’s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg.
Jota and Nunez (below celebrating with Curtis Jones) scored two goals each in Sunday’s 4-0 win at Bournemouth and Lijnders says Liverpool’s attack has “a lot of weapons”.
He claims the Reds frontline is even more varied than it was under their fabled front three of Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino. “Mo is obviously the face of the team, but I never doubted we would be OK without him,” said Jurgen Klopp’s No.2.
“If we have these five players, you can always bring in players who have a lot of qualities. Sometimes when it was Mo,
Sadio and Bobby it was so settled that it was difficult to change. It’s so easy to change now and I think we’re more unpredictable. This squad has a lot of weapons.” It’s worth remembering that in the last two years Liverpool have played nine fixtures with Salah on AFCON duty. Of those nine, they have won eight and drawn one.
Jota has five goals in his last eight games for Liverpool and Lijnders says the Portugal star is unplayable when he is angry.
“Jota is a player who, when he’s in this angry mood and wants to take on the world, can do things which are incredible,” said Lijnders, who celebrates his 41st birthday today.
“Now we have to get him in that mood as often as possible. But we’re really happy with how Darwin, Lucho, Diogo, and Cody all step up in different moments.”
On Sunday Nunez became the first Premier League player this season to notch 10 goals and 10 assists and Lijnders says he is Liverpool’s agent of chaos.
The Uruguay star makes things happen and Lijnders smiled: “Chaos all around him! It could be a song! We’re really happy with him. He’s young, he’s hungry, he has energy and direction.
“Each game he can create six chances just by himself.
“If he keeps training how he is training now, if he keeps the braveness in his play, then goals will come because he’s creating and the team are creating and he will become better.
“He will become better, he will improve. He’s already proved he is important for this team. That’s really nice to see and we’re really happy with him.”