Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp on the ‘game-changer’ moment in Mohamed Salah’s record-chasing season

Salah scored his 29th Premier League goal of the season on Saturday to beat Crystal Palace but his manager believes he is relishing the responsibility of leading the team

(Getty Images)

Of all Mohamed Salah’s goals this season, Jurgen Klopp pinpoints one, scored back in October and a long way from Liverpool, which elevated him to his current plane.

On an edgy night at the Borg el-Arab Stadium in Alexandria, with the score 1-1, Congo conceded a 93rd-minute penalty to hand Egypt the chance to seal a place at their first World Cup since 1990 – an incident which sparked wildly premature celebrations, as the Liverpool manager remembers.

“The best thing was how Egypt celebrated getting the penalty,” said Klopp, talking after Liverpool’s win over Crystal Palace on Saturday, in which Salah again clinched the winner. “I’ve never seen that in my life. Germany in 1990 didn’t celebrate winning the World Cup like this. And they only got the penalty – then they thought ‘Someone actually has to shoot’. That was real pressure.”

Mohamed Salah celebrates qualifying for the World Cup (Getty Images)

There was only ever one man to bear the burden for Egypt. Salah, who had already scored once in the match, calmly collected the ball, touched it against his forehead and placed it down on the spot. Klopp was watching at home – “I nearly had a heart attack,” he remembered. Salah paused before puffing out a breath and drilling it convincingly into the corner.

“That’s why he got the next penalty at Liverpool – and he missed it,” Klopp added with a grin. “That was not too good. But we all have these game-changer moments in our life and maybe that was one of his. If you deliver in a situation like this, this is what can happen to you.”

What has happened is an astonishing season of goalscoring, closing in on record figures for Liverpool and the Premier League. Salah has 29 league goals, 37 for Liverpool in total, 41 for club and country. He is doing it even in quiet games, something Klopp said makes him a “proper striker”. He barely flickered on Palace’s radar for much of Saturday’s match, trotting around Selhurst Park’s peripheries, until he collected the ball in the box in the 84th minute and everyone in the ground knew what was coming next.

Is he starting to carry the weight of Liverpool’s expectation, like he does for Egypt? “Maybe,” replied Klopp. “But I don’t think it’s a proper burden. I think it’s just responsibility. Nobody told him to score 30 goals otherwise we can’t be successful, and now we don’t tell him that if he doesn’t score we cannot win.”

But more often than not he does score, and this is the thing. He is beyond a purple patch, a rich vein, an inspired run of form. This is just Mohamed Salah: ruthless and reliable, whether he’s six yards out or 25, on a hat-trick or on the fringes. He has reached an exceptional level and what is so convincing is the way he has sustained it, with no signs of dropping off.

Aged 25, the only thing that could feasibly stop Salah and Liverpool from enjoying a long romance is advances from elsewhere. Klopp was asked this, his final question in the post-match press conference. Is he worried Salah might be attracting admirers from Spain, like Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho before him? The manager leaned forwards a little, eyes narrowing through his glasses. “No,” came the reply, followed by a long pause. “What else do you want me to say?”

He is right. Coutinho’s exit was a reminder of the transfer market’s food chain, which can be ignored for a little while but cannot be broken. All Liverpool can do is to enjoy Salah in the here and now, a “proper striker” operating on his own plane.