‘Nobody can cope with crazy Haaland’ - Klopp warns Salah against striker comparisons

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Jurgen Klopp has urged Mohamed Salah not to compare his record this season to the 'crazy' goalscoring exploits of Erling Haaland.

The Manchester City striker has netted a remarkable 19 times in just 12 games - including three hat-tricks - since making the switch from Borussia Dortmund over the summer.

Haaland has already scored 14 league goals this season. Credit: Getty.Haaland has already scored 14 league goals this season. Credit: Getty.
Haaland has already scored 14 league goals this season. Credit: Getty.
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Salah, meanwhile, has endured one of the leaner spells of his prolific Liverpool career, finding the back of the net just five times in 11 outings across all competitions.

The Egyptian’s record haul of 32 goal in a single Premier League season is already under threat, and it seems unlikely he will be able to protect it by outscoring that mark.

However, Klopp is still seeing plenty of positives in his attacking play, and does not want him to fall into the trap of trying to catch up with Haaland.

He said: "Nobody in the world can cope with the Haaland situation in the moment, it's crazy what he's doing.

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"How he shook his head when he scored the second on in the Champions League like, 'Obviously I can do what I want, the ball bounces in front of my feet'.

"He's an exceptional player in an exceptional team and that obviously works pretty well together and I don't think we should compare in this moment anyone with that. At least I don't do that.

"With Mo it's like with us, I hope we are close to exploding. You can say whatever you want about Mo and is it his season so far? No, like for all of us.

"We can pick them all out. Whose season was it yet from our side? Nobody's! We have to make sure that the team performs on their level and everybody can be the best version of themselves again, that's the idea.

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"But Mo is like this, even when the goalscoring numbers are not that crazy, how often he is involved! The passes for Darwin... the problem is if you don't score around that then nobody appreciates it.

"As a coach in my life, because I watch the whole match and not the highlights, I see these little things as well so, for me, it's fine."

Klopp also went on to lavish praise upon Salah for his defensive contributions, highlighting a tackle he made against Rangers as an example of how he wants his teams to play.

He added: "He wants to score goals, definitely, desperately, 100 percent that never changed. Call him in 20 years and it will be the same, definitely.

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"But he brings himself together and, from my point of view, Mo defended against Rangers on an incredibly high level.

"The situation of the game was when Mo defended the half-space from the blindside and wins the ball there.

"I didn't tell anybody yet and you might not find it if you watch the game back but that was a great situation because it showed what we had to do that day and from that moment on we could play football.

"When this team defends on the highest level, we are able to play some good stuff and that's what we have to do."