premier league
Liverpool coach Klopp defends Salah substitution
Liverpool coach Jürgen Klopp and his team couldn’t get past 1-1 against Chelsea. photo
© Ian Walton/AP/dpa
Jürgen Klopp reacted calmly to his top scorer Mohamed Salah’s irritation at being substituted and defended his decision.
He can’t remember that Salah has ever left the pitch happily and that’s perfectly fine, said the Liverpool coach after the 1-1 win at Chelsea in the Premier League season opener. “It was clear that he wasn’t happy about that, I understand that and it’s not a problem,” said the German soccer coach.
Klopp replaced the 31-year-old Egyptian in the 77th minute. Annoying for the striker: As a result, Salah failed to score in the eighth opener in a row and set a Premier League record. He hadn’t thought of that at all at the moment and didn’t even know that Salah would have scored a record, Klopp admitted. “But I’m the manager of the whole team and at that moment we needed fresh legs. That made really sense for us and of course it had nothing to do with Mo or was anything against him,” explained the 56-year-old.