Klopp hatches two-man plan to cope with Salah absence before Liverpool farewell
Jurgen Klopp claims Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota have timed their scoring returns to perfection with Mohamed Salah leaving for AFCON.
Monday’s home clash with Newcastle will be Salah’s last Liverpool game for a month, with Klopp delighted Nunez ended his 12-game barren run with a goal at Burnley on Boxing Day, where Jota also netted within seven minutes of returning from his hamstring injury.
Klopp feels Nunez and Jota, together with his other frontmen Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo, can fill the massive hole in Liverpool’s attack left by the 16-goal top scorer Salah.
“Yes, absolutely, it’s great timing,” said the Liverpool boss, who is also losing Wataru Endo to the Asia Cup after the Newcastle game. “And it’s good as well that we played the West Ham game without Mo starting, seeing that we can do something without him.
“You want to have Mo Salah, he plays all the time, on the pitch, but he’s not available. You always have to find solutions and usually we find some.
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“It’s not the first time, it’s a really very average situation that you lose your goalscorer, but we had it even worse in the past when both Sadio [Mane] and Mo left and traditionally at least one of them went far in the tournament. We know the Africa Cup of Nations appears and Mo has to go, and so we have to deal with it.”
Salah will play for Liverpool against Newcastle before jetting off to represent Egypt (Liverpool FC via Getty Images)Klopp is delighted to have Jota and Nunez back scoring and he loves the former’s football intelligence while the latter scored from Liverpool’s most-difficult chance against Burnley.
“Diogo has a football brain, he’s a very smart footballer, he understands the game really well,” said Klopp. “The game is blessed with some of these players, who understand the game on a different level, and he’s one of them.
“It gives him the chance to understand the game a little earlier. On top of that, he’s a great finisher. I love the Diogo story, he’s back and I hope he’s back for the next 10 years.
Diogo Jota scored just moments after coming on against Burnley (Paul Currie/REX/Shutterstock)“The goal from Darwin is an exceptional goal. It was a first touch from outside the box and into the far corner. Diogo closed the game and we need these boys.”
Liverpool’s great result at Newcastle in August, when their 10 men battled back from a goal down to win through two late Nunez efforts, proved a turning point in their year. Klopp says it reminded everyone of the importance of defending well and team work.
“It was an important day,” he said. “We got the red card against Bournemouth the week before and then the second red card and we realised pretty quick what we can do if we really stick together. It’s obvious we have a lot of offensive players in the team, but in that moment when we played with 10 men, no-one thinks ‘what is my actual position?’.
“Everybody buys really 100 per cent into defending against Newcastle. I said after the game, if we can defend with 10 like this, who has a problem to do it with 11? So if we do that, it makes it even more difficult for the opponent. For sure, it was a special day and a very important one.”
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