Mohamed Salah sends message to Liverpool about new contract demands rejected

Mohamed Salah sends message to Liverpool about new contract demands rejectedLiverpool manager Jurgen Klopp with Mohamed Salah

Jurgen Klopp has told Mohamed Salah to just ‘let it go’ as the Liverpool forward approaches a historic afternoon amid a mini-goal drought.

Salah is set to play his 200th league game for the Reds at Wolverhampton Wanderers today to set a goalscoring record for the club in that era, having already netted 125 in the top flight.

The Egyptian is two more goals than Roger Hunt and three more than Ian Rush after 200 games and needs one more goal to match Gordon Hodgson in his next game.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp with Mohamed Salah (Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Jurgen Klopp has told Mohamed Salah to just ‘let it go’ as the Liverpool forward approaches a historic afternoon amid a mini-goal drought.

Salah is set to play his 200th league game for the Reds at Wolverhampton Wanderers today to set a goalscoring record for the club in that era, having already netted 125 in the top flight.

The Egyptian has scored twice more than Roger Hunt and three more than Ian Rush after 200 games, and will need one more in his next appearance to match Gordon Hodgson’s tally.

While Salah – who signed a lucrative new contract in the summer – has scored 17 goals this season, he has scored just one in his last seven appearances and was guilty of a nasty blunder in last season’s FA Cup fourth round defeat and Hove Albion.
But Klopp defended the 30-year-old and is confident the striker will be back on the scoresheet soon.

“Attitude is not Mo’s problem,” said the Reds boss. “He IS a world-class athlete. He is first in and last out and works hard.

Now he’s not scoring, but I think there are people who say ‘why did they give Klopp a new contract?’ This is the world we live in and that’s perfectly fine.

“If we don’t deliver on time, there is criticism. You can question the character, the knowledge, the skill, everything.

But you can’t score the goals that Mo scored unless you are an outstanding world-class footballer. Even then, you can’t do it all the time.

“He just has to let it go. There were times he would have scored last year. The Brighton game, 100 per cent, is a goal and now it’s not.” Do you think it has to do with the new contract? It’s just not fair.”

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane and Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford are the only Premier League players to score more club goals than Salah this season.

And Klopp added: “Things are the way they are and the only way for us to stop all these issues is to play at our highest level and that’s what we’ll do. We’ll get the job done. It won’t happen. not overnight.

We have taken action. It’s not that what we said four weeks ago was useless and we haven’t learned anything. We are really on it and we are positive.

“We want to play the games and believe in our chance to create something special this year as well.

We won’t be first at the moment, but we are in a position where we can improve a lot. Tomorrow we will play and start from there”.

With Ibrahima Konate out, Joel Matip is set to return at centre-back alongside Joe Gomez. Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Curtis Jones are all pushing for a start in midfield, while Darwin Nunez battles for a place up front.

Fabio Carvalho and Nat Phillips, who were absent last weekend through injury and illness, are available again.