Jurgen Klopp Admits He Almost Didn't Sign Mohamed Salah

Mohamed Salah continued his electric start to his Liverpool career with another trademark strike during the first-half of the Reds' Premier League clash with Bournemouth, today, but things could have been so much different for the Egyptian forward and the Anfield club.

The former Roma and Chelsea man now has 20 goals to his name (at the time of writing) since arriving on Merseyside in the summer, but Jurgen Klopp initially feared that Salah may be too skinny to be effective enough in the Premier League.

The German manager was convinced of the 25-year-old's quality, despite his struggles at Chelsea during his first spell in England, but wanted to be 100 per cent certain of every aspect of the Egyptian's game before committing to a £34 million deal with Roma.

Now that £34 million is looking like an absolute snip and any misgivings Klopp may have had about Salah's physicality have been well and truly put to bed.

Klopp said of Salah's qualities during a recent interview, via the Mail, "I didn't make a number (goals target) for him before when we signed him. We knew we would get a very offensive-minded midfielder who is a lot of games a striker but also has the ability to make goals, to setup goals. So that what was the package we wanted, and that's cool.

"His speed is his speed, it doesn't depend on which league he's in. That is clear. Of course we had to look at a lot of his games to see about other parts, physicality, being strong enough for challenges.

"But you see now, he is. I met him of course at one point and he looked ready. If you watch him only on television he looks quite skinny, I said before the scouting department did a fantastic job around him. They didn't get out of our ears. It was 100 per cent, he is ready, he is ready.

"At one point, we were all sure he was ready. And that's how it looks now."

Given his importance to Liverpool's cause this season, Reds fans must be breathing a rather large sigh of relief that Klopp went ahead with the move, as Salah is now in the running for both the Golden Boot award and PFA Player Of The Year gong. And if the former Chelsea man can maintain his early season form, there's a great chance Klopp's men will finish the season inside the Premier League top four.

(H/T Daily Mail)

Topics: Football News, Football, Premier League, Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool FC, Mohamed Salah

Joe Baiamonte

Northerner. Assistant Editor of SPORTbible. Studied Journalism and Broadcasting in a portakabin on a car park of Salford University for three years. Believes football peaked with Serie A in the '90s and strong-arms pro wrestling references into as many articles as possible. Neymar once took 50 euros off me during a game of poker.

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