Bargain buy Mo was no gamble claims Klopp
Jurgen Klopp concedes that Mo Salah has made the £34m Liverpool paid for him look a real bargain as the Egyptian heads towards a 50-goal season and tonight’s PFA Player of the Year award.
Salah will then turn his attention to helping Klopp’s team beat his old club Roma in Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final.
But the Liverpool boss also concedes that although the club had done all their homework, the signing was still a risk.
“At Roma he was really, really good and it’s only because England has such a great league and you obviously don’ t watch other leagues often enough that people didn’t know that,” says the German.
“But he has stepped up to make the next stage in his development.
“He’s very cool in front of goal. That’ s how strikers are.
“The more often they hit the target the more often they can make the right decision.
“It’s about being in the right space at the right moment. That’s what we have developed over the season together.
“We were pretty sure it would work out, but we couldn’t be 100% certain. You always take the risk that it doesn’t work.
“Was he a bargain? Which is the better business, to bring in Andy Robertson from Hull for a few million or buying Mo?
“The price was the market value at the time and other teams could have bought him.
“Just because he’ s scored 40 goals, does that mean we should have paid £50m?”
Salah joins Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane as part of the Premier League’s most potent front three, but they really only came together because of the January departure of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona.
The Brazilian sacrificed involvement in the Champions League to fulfil his dream of playing in the Nou Camp and may be casting envious glances back to Merseyside, especially as his old club have outlasted Barca in the competition.
“I hope that Phil doesn’t have regrets,” says Klopp.
“So many silly things were written when he left. I never said we were stronger without him.
“He is a world- class player now and will be a world-class player in the future.
“He is at the club he wants to be and that’s good for him. Usually Barcelona would be in the Champions League and maybe with him they would still be in it.
“After he left we had to find solutions and, thank God, the boys worked really well together.
“I couldn’t plan before the season that we would have a front three scoring 70 goals between them.
“The work- rate of all three is outstanding but that’s how football should be so I don’t think we should constantly praise that.”