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Jurgen Klopp: Mohamed Salah Should Follow Sadio Mane Example to End Goal Drought
March 20, 2019
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has told Mohamed Salah he should look to fellow forward Sadio Mane to help end his current goal drought.
Salah has an impressive haul of 20 goals for the 2018-19 campaign, but he is on a run of seven games without a goal for the Reds in all competitions. By contrast, Mane is in blistering form, with 11 goals in his previous 11 outings.
Speaking about his two forwards, Klopp was full of praise for both and said if Salah follows Mane's example, the goals will start to flow again soon, per Liverpool's official website:
"Sadio played pretty much always like this but now he is always in the right spot in the right moment. In football it's sometimes like this.
"The only thing he did when he was not always in the right spot was work and work and work. That's exactly what Mo has to do, exactly the same: just work, do the right things and it will come again.
"He's just rather unlucky, where Sadio is lucky in the moment—he is in brilliant shape, that's true."
Before the international break, Mane enjoyed a brilliant week, as he netted five times in three games for the Reds, with braces against Burnley and Bayern Munich followed by the opener against Fulham on Sunday.
The standout goal of that quintet was Mane's first against Bayern in the UEFA Champions League, as he controlled a long ball expertly and coolly finished (U.S. only):
In addition to his goalscoring in the Champions League, the Senegal international has slipped into a groove in the Premier League since the turn of the year:
At the moment, Mane is undoubtedly Liverpool's main man in attack, a role Salah assumed with seeming ease last term.
While Salah has struggled to replicate the standards he set in his remarkable 44-goal 2017-18, he has been prolific up until this recent barren run. At the moment, the forward is snatching at opportunities and complicating situations he would have made look easy in his debut term at Anfield.
Even so, the Egyptian is continuing to play a part in Liverpool's pursuit of the Premier League and Champions League.
After the win against Bayern, Henry Jackson praised the all-round performance of the Liverpool No. 11:
It was always going to be a huge challenge for Salah to replicate the goalscoring feats of last season, although there's no doubt he's a positive force in what is shaping up to be a memorable term for Liverpool.
Crucially for the Reds, Mane has made major strides in recent weeks and is currently among the best players in the Premier League. If Salah can rediscover his potency to complement his forward partner in the final weeks of the season, Liverpool are going to be tough to halt both domestically and in European competition.