Mohamed Salah has opened up on who he believes deserves more credit at Liverpool and his initial reaction to Jurgen Klopp announcing he was stepping down
Mohamed Salah has highlighted Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez as two underrated players in Liverpool’s quest for a glorious end to Jurgen Klopp’s reign as manager.
The Reds are preparing for their Europa League quarter-final first leg against Atalanta on Thursday still chasing a trophy treble having already claimed the League Cup and stand behind Premier League leaders Arsenal only on goal difference with seven games remaining.
Despite missing almost two months of the season through injury, Salah’s late equaliser in Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Manchester United was his 23rd goal of the campaign and strengthened his position as Liverpool’s leading scorer.
But when asked which players have perhaps not been appreciated sufficiently in Klopp’s squad this season, Salah pointed to two of his fellow strikers.
“I think Darwin and Cody,” said the Egyptian. “Cody doesn’t get credit because the fans I don’t know if they really understand his game or not. But he is a very, very clever player. I admire the way he thinks, it’s very, very good. He is young and wants to learn, he asks a lot of questions.
“Darwin is a key for us as well. The way he plays, the way he opens space for us, it’s very good. But he doesn’t get a lot of credit because once he misses a chance, others fans start to jump (on him) and Liverpool fans start defending him and he’s inside that mess. But for me, he’s one of the best players on the team.”
Salah has also detailed his initial reaction to the news back in January when Klopp informed his squad at a team meeting at the AXA Training Centre that he would be leaving at the end of the season after almost nine years as Liverpool manager.
“I was surprised because he didn’t tell anyone,” explained the 31-year-old. “We knew there was a meeting at 10.30 and were were like ‘why 10.30? It’s usually 12 o’clock’.
“The manager was here and his agent was here, so we were thinking it was going to be a new contract. And then suddenly he said he was leaving and I was like ‘why?!?’.
“I spoke to him once or twice afterwards and he explained to me why, but at that time I was ‘why would he leave? Everything is fine and we are fighting for everything, why has he put that statement out now?’. But it’s his life and he can do whatever he wants.”
And asked if Liverpool were more determined to ensure Klopp leaves with another trophy or two in the bag, Salah said to Astro SuperSport: “I don’t think we’ve sat and spoken about it, but everybody feels it to be fair. It’s not just about him, it’s about ourselves, we all want to win trophies. But it’s in the back of our minds, but we also know we are going for it ourselves.”
