Jurgen Klopp has leaped to the defence of his striker Mo Salah after accusations that he was guilty of simulation in Liverpool’s weekend win over West Ham.
Liverpool continue their Champions League campaign in Italy against Atalanta on Tuesday night with a cloud hanging over their star forward.
Pundits, led by Tony Cascarino and Graeme Souness, accused Salah of playacting to win a first-half penalty against Arthur Masuaka in the 2-1 win.
Klopp said: “What can I say? It was a foul. Pretty much everyone who saw the situation thought it was a foul.
“Believe it or not, I spoke to Mo yesterday morning about how he feels. He has exactly three proper knocks on the foot.
“One of them is from the penalty situation. That’s how it is. There is a knock, you go down or not, whatever. Sometimes the refs give it.
“We don’t talk too long about all the penalties we don’t get, to be honest. But obviously now two days after the game, we are talking about that. And there was clear contact! So what can I say? No. I don’t understand the criticism.”
Despite a difficult start to the season, the champions are now back on top of the Premier League and can make it three wins in three Champions League group games tonight.
And Klopp has been further boosted by the news that Naby Keita and Joel Matip could return from injury in Italy – the latter a particularly important development given Liverpool’s injury woes at centre-half.
“Naby and Joel trained yesterday, fully. I didn’t make any decisions yet because we are still only two days after the game,” Klopp said.
“We cannot do anything until we speak to the medical department and they give us the green, the orange or the red lights. We wait. In the moment, we have more centre-halves available than we will line up with, which is good!”
The general picture is a particularly positive one, given the manner in which the Reds have responded to the shock of their 7-2 defeat at Aston Villa earlier in the season.
“We are fine. We know where we stand. It’s just the judgement from outside. We lost to Aston Villa and that was pretty clear,” Klopp said.
“We found our feet, got other setbacks in the league, with injuries and that kind of thing. It’s like it is always. We had injuries before. We dealt with them and that’s what we will do now.
“I don’t think we should think too much about where we stand in the different competitions. I think we are doing pretty well with being focused on the next game.
“And the next one, for sure, is so far the biggest challenge in the Champions League. Atalanta, with all they have done in the last three years.”
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2JvTbXw
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