Jurgen Klopp Says He's Not Bothered by Mohamed Salah's Liverpool Goal Drought

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has said he isn't bothered by Mohamed Salah's failure to score in his last eight games and joked the Egyptian's return of 60 goals in his past two seasons is "not too bad."

Salah's drop in form has coincided with Liverpool losing pace on Manchester City in the Premier League title chase, but Klopp defended last year's PFA Player of the year, per the Guardian's Andy Hunter:

"He scored 40 goals last year, all the awards came after, then you are not 100% when pre-season starts. The shoulder was still a problem, but he did everything brilliant. His career is not over. He scored 20 goals this year, so he scored 60 in the last two. Wow! That's not too bad.

"He's a threat, he helps us a lot and he deals with new situations really well. Sometimes you need a bit of time to adapt but I don't think he needed that long really. He doesn't seem to be bothered that he hasn't scored in a few games, and I'm not. As long as we work together and do the right things, he will be fine.

"The answer for problems in football is always work rate. Do it again and again, as much as you can, as fast as you can, and the ball will one day bounce in your direction."

Liverpool led the Premier League by three points when Salah scored his last goal in a 3-0 win over Bournemouth on February 9. They currently sit two points above second-place City, but Pep Guardiola's side hold one game in hand.

The Reds edged Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 at Anfield on Sunday, and it was Salah who forced a crucial own-goal in the dying minutes to decide the fixture.

The former Chelsea winger spoke to Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher after the win and emphasised the success of the team comes before any individual merit:

Klopp continued and spoke confidently of Liverpool's season so far, reaffirming Salah's rut isn't a concern: "We have 79 points in the moment. You cannot have that with a lot of problems over the year so, because we had no major problems so far, we speak always about these little things. That's part of the deal, but not really something we speak about in the dressing room at all."

The German added he thought his attacker's hand in the winning touch against Spurs was so great that he deserved to be awarded the goal outright, per journalist David Maddock:

Salah joined Liverpool from AS Roma in 2017 and won the Golden Boot in his first season back in the Premier League with 32 goals, the highest tally to win it since Alan Shearer's 34 at Blackburn Rovers in 1994-95.

He's appeared in all 32 of the club's league games this season but has only 17 goals to show for it. Although a good distance short of last term's total, that sum is still great by usual standards among wide forwards, not to mention it's only two shy of the top scorer, City striker Sergio Aguero.

Despite his struggle to maintain the same scoring rate as in 2017-18, Salah also remains the Premier League's third-most valuable player, per the CIES Football Observatory:

Liverpool travel to Southampton on Friday, and Salah will have a good chance of ending his run without a goal considering he has scored in each of the last three meetings with the Saints (four goals in three games).