Jurgen Klopp sends message to Liverpool fans about ‘fantastic’ summer signing
The Liverpool boss hails Mohamed Salah's impact at Anfield following his summer move
Jurgen Klopp has joked that Mohamed Salah required roughly 30 minutes at Watford to settle into the Liverpool team.
The Egypt international completed a £39m move to Liverpool from AS Roma in the summer transfer window to help bolster Klopp’s attacking options ahead of the new campaign.
Salah spent six months at Chelsea following an £11m switch from Basel in 2014 but struggled to make an impression before being sent out on loan to Fiorentina and then Roma.
The 24-year-old has hit the ground running in the Premier League this term following his summer move with a return of four goals and one assist in eight games.
Salah has also netted three times in three Champions League games after the winger scored twice in a 7-0 win against Slovenian opponents Maribor last week.
Liverpool will make the trip to Tottenham Hotspur in their next Premier League game on Sunday afternoon as Salah looks to score his fifth goal of the season.
And Klopp delivered a glowing verdict on the Liverpool winger following his impressive impact at Anfield over the past few months.
“He has quality, there is no doubt about it,” Klopp told reporters at his pre-Tottenham Hotspur press conference on Friday. “I think he needed half an hour at Watford, around about, and that was it.
“At Watford, the first few challenges, it looked like he’s not heavy enough, not strong enough, whatever, for these challenges. In the league, it can be difficult, but from this moment on, he was in the league. That’s most important.
“It was a fantastic job of the scouting department; it’s not that I didn’t know Mo Salah, of course – everybody knew him. I’ve known him since he was at Basel, but to see his development in different things and we then all together had to make the judgement, how can we compare the Italian league with the English Premier League and stuff like this. All the rest is Mo Salah.
“He is a fantastic boy and always it helps if you settle as a person very quickly, perhaps you then settle as a player. I don’t think he needed even half an hour to settle in the team – that was fantastic from the first day.”
Liverpool are in eighth place in the Premier League table following a run of three victories in eighth outings.
