SUPREMO

‘The whole game was brilliant from Salah, not just the goals’

JURGEN KLOPP was swift to heap praise after another magical performance from striker Mo Salah saw him score a hat-trick to make it 17 games unbeaten for title-chasing Liverpool. “Whatever you do in a football game, you need somebody to finish it off and what Mo did around his two goals in the second half was just exceptional.

“I don’ t know in the moment a lot of players who would hav e scored these two goals. The first is a foul, but he wants to score goals and stays on his feet and scores it. His third goal is outstanding again, how he set it up, that was good.

“But the whole game from him was brilliant – not just the goals.”

And Cherries defender Steve Cook discovered that not even the darkest of defensive arts can stop Salah when he’s in this sort of form.

Bournemouth were already trailing to a Salah strike when he got in behind the home defence soon after the break.

Cook resorted to one of the oldest tricks in the book as the striker ran through on goal, scraping his studs down the Liverpool man’s Achilles.

It was the sort of challenge that would have seen plenty of others go down looking for a penalty.

Not Salah, though.

He stayed on his feet, steadied himself and slotted a fine finish past Asmir Begovic into the corner of his goal.

Salah didn’t bother with a celebration, choosing instead to give Cook the death stare.

Not that he was looking.

The Bournemouth man bowed his head in what was surely acceptance that he had been done by one of the best players in the game.

Poor old Cook had a torrid time trying to keep the Liverpool forward at bay and his misery was compounded when he turned Andy Robertson’s cross into his own net for the visitors’ third goal.

It was some finish from the defender, to be fair, a kind of Cruyff- turn volley, which left Begovic no chance.

Cook wasn’t finished there, though, and, just when he thought things couldn’t get much worse, he lunged t owards Adam

Lallana’s through ball.

He succeeded only in pushing it into Salah’s path, however, and that was all the invitation he needed to complete his hat-trick in a glorious fashion.

Salah put Begovic on his backside, then did it again for good measure as he twisted one way then the other.

And he finished things off with a nonchalant flick with the outside of his left boot with Nathan Ake stranded on the goalline.

Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe conceded: “Salah was very good, he looked razor-sharp. We did struggle to handle him, he’s one of the best in the world.”

What’s more, Salah didn’t even look as if he was really trying.

Cook wasn’t the only Bournemouth player off-colour and even if they’d had Callum Wilson in the side – he was ruled out with a hamstring injury – there’s little chance the outcome would have been different.

This victory was a great way for James Milner – handed the captain’s armband with Jordan Henderson on the bench – to celebrate his 500th Premier League game.

Bournemouth had looked jittery early on.

Klopp’s men were occasionally guilty of gifting their hosts possession, but, as soon as they went ahead, there was only ever one side in it.

Roberto Firmino exchanged passes with Salah and unleashed a 25-yard shot which Begovic could only parry, and the Liverpool star was quickest to react, tucking the ball into the roof of the net.

Howe ( left) was understandably frustrated after replays showed Salah was offside when Firmino shot. Howe said: “The first goal had a massive bearing because at that moment we were OK, our shape was good.

“Liverpool hadn’t opened us up at that point and the goal shouldn’t have stood.

“We got ourselves back in the game and I thought it was well set up for us at half-time. Then we made some individual mistakes that really hurt us.”