Jurgen Klopp has revealed that he ‘had a conversation’ with Mo Salah regarding penalty-taking duties for Liverpool.
The Egyptian missed two spot kicks in quick succession over the past couple of months, failing from 12 yards in the 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth in March and 2-2 draw at home to Arsenal last month.
However, the 30-year-old made no mistake with penalties against Tottenham and Fulham this week, with those goals ultimately earning the Reds four points in a pair of one-goal victories.
As per Liverpool Echo, Klopp outlined that he and Salah spoke about the penalty duties, with the forward adamant that he wanted to maintain the responsibility despite his costly misses earlier in the spring.
The manager said: “We had a conversation and he wanted to stay the penalty-taker. We had a normal conversation about it and I said, ‘Okay, you are.’
“You don’t feel great in that moment and that’s what he said. ‘I don’t feel right in that moment’, because the pressure obviously increases with the penalties you miss.
“Then Fab or Trent, who are two and three, give the ball to them. (But) He smashed them and turned it around. This today was a super penalty, that’s really clear.
“I think with all the goals Mo scored, we can’t just judge it for two missed and go away from it. That’s what I meant when I said we’ll talk about it. It’s a conversation between two grown-up men.”
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It would’ve been easy for Klopp to panic and absolve Salah of penalty duties after his misses against Bournemouth and Arsenal, especially when he didn’t get either of them on target.
However, the manager was quite right to continue trusting in the Egyptian, who’s now scored 26 of the 31 penalties he’s taken for Liverpool (excluding shootouts), a success rate of 84% (Transfermarkt).
While the two spot kicks he missed over the past couple of months would’ve earned the Reds three extra points had they been scored, the 30-year-old has won us four points this week with the two he converted against Spurs and Fulham.
Klopp must be quite glad now that he listened to Salah and allowed him to continue assuming responsibility from 12 yards, with our number 11 emphatically banishing the ghosts of his earlier misses.