Jurgen Klopp has admitted that he has been talking to Mohamed Salah this week about taking Liverpool’s penalties, with the Egyptian winger scoring from the spot last night.
Speaking to the club’s official website, the German coach revealed that he has been in conversations with the 30-year-old in recent days over taking penalties, with Salah scoring against Tottenham and now Fulham having missed his last two against AFC Bournemouth and Arsenal.
Debate has been high in recent weeks on should Salah remain on penalty duty, yet Klopp has kept his trust in the £34m attacker with great results, with the Liverpool boss saying: “We had a conversation and he wanted to stay the penalty taker. We had a normal conversation about it. I said, ‘OK, yeah, you are.'”
With Salah’s overall record from penalties as good as it has been for Liverpool, it is perhaps no real surprise why the attacker has remained on spot-kick duty despite his two misses earlier this year against Bournemouth and Arsenal, yet Klopp has made the right decision to keep the Egyptian on the role.
Indeed, the former AS Roma attacker’s goalscoring record at Anfield speaks for itself, and given the nature of penalties, even the best finishers in football, like Salah, can sometimes endure poor spells from the spot, especially when the pressure is high.
Klopp has been right to keep Salah on Liverpool’s penalties
Liverpool potentially have the best pool of penalty-takers in the Premier League, yet Salah still stands above the rest, with Klopp once again proven right in keeping the forward as the club’s main spot-kicker based on the last two Premier League matches.
The last two wins have put Liverpool in with an outside chance of qualifying for top-four, and if Salah can continue his current streak of penalties into the final games of the season, there’s a likely chance that the Egyptian can fire the Reds to an unlikely UEFA Champions League spot.