Jurgen Klopp Hails Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane Following Impressive Stoke Win
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp heaped praise on his African duo, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah following the Reds' impressive 3-0 victory over Stoke City at the Bet365 Stadium.
Sadio Mane opened the scoring for Klopp's men on Wednesday night, before Salah came off the bench to net a thoroughly impressive brace to secure all three points for the visitors late on.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, as reported by the Liverpool Echo, Jurgen Klopp was full of praise for his goalscorers. When asked of Mane's impact, the German managers response was simple. "Good, good, good" said the Reds boss, "very important for us.
"He needs rhythm now. Perfect, little break, good, little break. Now he needs a little bit of time, it's no problem. I'm fine with him.
"We all know in one or two situations if he is in a 'click' moment he can score as well in these situations, it looks similar to when Mo is in the moment.
"That's all good, he's ready to work, very important for us."
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In a lineup that saw a large contingent of the Liverpool squad rested, Salah was replaced by England youngster Dominic Solanke who made an impressive impact in his first Premier League start for the Reds, showing some neat footwork to set up Mane for the opening goal.
However, it was Liverpool's £36.9m Egyptian signing who stole the show late on, coming off the bench to make an immediate impact, netting twice to take his goal tally for the season up to 17 across all competitions.
"Thank God [Salah can't stop scoring]," Klopp said of the 25-year-old winger. "Obviously that's good. It's difficult for all the players coming on in this temperature. Sitting on the bench is not too nice, it worked really well, two fantastic goals."
Solanke's contribution was not lost on the Liverpool manager who credited the former-Chelsea man for an excellent league debut for the Merseysiders.
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"He should have scored," Klopp smiled. "Fantastic boy, well-deserved, really happy he could do that. Fantastic player.
"He can improve in pretty much everything but he's already a good player, so that's probably the best news, so I'm really happy I could give him this opportunity tonight.
"He has to work like all the others but everybody who is with England thought tonight 'that looks good' – really good player."
Liverpool's victory over Stoke takes them up to fifth in the league following Tottenham Hotspurs' shock loss to Leicester City, though they remain two points behind Arsenal who occupy the highly coveted fourth place spot in the table.
