‘He was convinced’: Klopp says Liverpool player wasn’t best pleased with the referee against Leicester

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Mohamed Salah made his long-awaited return for Liverpool last night.

The Egyptian entered the pitch alongside Harvey Elliott with an hour gone at Anfield.

His heart-breaking AFCON final loss to Sadio Mane’s Senegal is still fresh in the memory. As a result, the home crowd belted out his song to remind him how much he is loved in Liverpool.

Like he’d never been away

It didn’t take the 29-year-old long to show those fans what they’ve been missing over the last month.

Within minutes Salah had wriggled through the Leicester defence in the tightest of spaces, but Kasper Schmeichel made a good save to deny him a special goal.

Shortly after that it looked for all the world as if he would add Liverpool’s second goal of the night. Pouncing on an errant ball from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, a shimmy of Salah’s hips sent Wilfred Ndidi the wrong way and set him bearing down one on one with Schmeichel.

Daniel Amartey did well to get back and narrow the angle for Mo. Schmeichel also stayed big and made another good save as Salah tried to dink it over him.

Amartey’s desperate attempt to get back caused a tangle of legs with Salah as he hit the shot. The Liverpool man went down and looked in considerable pain.

For a heart-stopping few moments it looked as though he might be seriously hurt. That’s the last thing Liverpool need.

Luckily, he was back up on his feet and causing havoc soon after. But after the game, Jurgen Klopp said that Salah wasn’t happy with the challenge from Amartey.

“It was typical Mo situation, how smart the first move was and then he’s going, he’s not to catch actually,” Klopp told BBC Sport after the game.

“He was convinced it was a penalty. In the end he got hit, after the shot or whatever.”

The first step

Klopp also took time out to comment on Mo’s AFCON disappointment and how the club will help him through it.

“There was a bit of grief maybe about what happened in the final in the Africa Cup,” said the manager.

“So we have one very happy player back and one obviously not so happy. But we will help him obviously, to overcome that and today was the first step.”

Salah’s performance was electric when he came on. But he did look slightly troubled too. Hopefully a few goals in the coming games will soon bring the smile back to his face.

Either way, he looks like a man on a mission. It surely won’t be long until we see the kind of goals like the one earlier in the season against Manchester City, which led to Klopp calling his player “unbelievable” via BBC Sport.