22 October 2023 , 12:01
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Jurgen Klopp paid tribute to his “crazy” goal machine Mohamed Salah, who brought up his 200th career league goal with a double that sunk Everton.
The Liverpool striker actually had an off day in the Merseyside derby, but still popped up at the end with the decisive goals that briefly put his side on top of the table.
And afterwards Klopp praised his rare talent to keep producing when not on song. “Look, what I love most about Mo is… well, maybe mostly I love the numbers!” the Liverpool manager said with a smile.
"But look, I think that Mo Salah played for us an incredible amount of fantastic games. It was not his best game but then [still] being that clinical with the penalty and then staying in the situation, that's probably his biggest quality, and I love that.”
Salah tops the Premier League this season for goal involvements, with seven goals and four assists, and Klopp pointed to his insane ability to keep the goals flowing for his side in seven seasons at Anfield.
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"We need someone who can bring the ball over the line, and Mo was that again. I couldn't respect that fact more,” he said. "It's absolutely outstanding, the numbers are crazy. He will never stop, that is his nature and that's really cool for us."
Liverpool had struggled to break down Everton's resolute defence despite Ashley Young being shown two yellow cards in the first half for fouls on Luis Diaz.
Salah had been kept relatively quiet by Vitaliy Mykolenko but broke the deadlock from the penalty spot after Michael Keane was adjudged to have handled Diaz's cross.
The Egyptian wrapped up the win for Liverpool late on when he slotted home from close range after Darwin Nunez had led the breakaway from an Everton attack.
Klopp added: "What was really important today [was] that we didn’t get frustrated in the second half with the fact that we didn’t score already.
"I’m not happy that we are ‘back on track’ or whatever, I’m happy we won the game. Yeah, and 20 points, that’s what we wanted and that’s what we have now, so that’s absolutely great. Now Thursday, different competition, super-important as well, another home game, fantastic. And from there we go, that’s the situation."