Jurgen Klopp hailed Mohamed Salah’s “game-changing influence” after the Liverpool forward marked his final game before departing for the African Cup of Nations with an instrumental role in the wild win over Newcastle United.
The Liverpool manager also praised Salah’s “focus” after he had a first-half penalty saved by Martin Dubravka but kept his composure to score his 150th and 151st league goals for the club.
Salah also played a key pass in Curtis Jones’s goal and provided the assist for Cody Gakpo’s as the home team scored four goals in the second half and turned the goals from Newcastle’s Alexander Isak and Sven Botman into consolations.
The win takes Liverpool three points clear at the top of the Premier League table but Klopp will now lose Salah and Wataru Endo,, the Japan captain, for the next few weeks.
“Nobody should be really surprised that Mo can change a game or can improve in a game, because he’s done it hundreds of times,” Klopp said.
“The more goals you have the more you are used to missing chances and understanding what you have to do to keep going and improving and that was what Mo did.
“The situation of the game, to bring the game in the right direction, was when Darwin [Nunez] squared the ball to Mo. I would say everyone in the stadium would have tried to hammer that goal, so it was incredible. It was a super game from start to finish.”
Salah also spoke after the game and backed Liverpool to maintain their title challenge in his absence. “I want to win this competition, I would love to win it [the Afcon],” he said. “But, without me, I’m sure the players will manage to win games.
“We have fantastic players, really good quality, they just need to keep the pressure away and play their football. We have players who can play in my position, they can do what I am doing.”
Klopp was also indebted to a television cameraman for finding his wedding ring after the Liverpool manager had conducted frenzied post-match celebrations on the pitch. “I lost it once and I needed a professional diver because I lost it in the sea,” Klopp admitted.
“From time to time [it happens] when I lose one or two kilos. I was too lively and I lost it and I had a massive shock. The cameraman annoyed me quite a few times this season but now he has a lot of shots free because that was really important.”
'We shouldn't over-dramatise our situation'
Meanwhile, Newcastle manager Eddie Howe admitted his side were fortunate to get in goalless at half-time after Liverpool had 18 shots to their one. But he had issues with both spot-kicks given against the visitors.
“I’m still confused over the penalties we conceded. The second one especially didn’t look like a penalty,” Howe said.
“There are two ways to look at it: the challenge on Sean Longstaff [in the second half] was a pen for me and that changes the game massively and then they go up the other end and it wasn’t [a penalty].”
A fifth defeat in six league matches, and one win in 12 away games, leaves Newcastle struggling to stay in reach of the top four with difficult fixtures against Manchester City and Aston Villa to come after Saturday’s FA Cup tie with rivals Sunderland.
“We have to do everything we can to protect that confidence so that is why I think we need not to over-dramatise things,” Howe added.
“It was a really good performance from Liverpool, they made it very difficult for us — we did well to come in 0-0. Take away the penalty moments, the goals we conceded were disappointing.”
