Jurgen Klopp believes Mohamed Salah would have been grateful to Liverpool’s “genius” winger Xherdan Shaqiri following the club’s empathic 4-0 home win over Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League.
The 26-year-old Egyptian forward doubled the Reds lead on the stroke of half-time after combining with his Swiss teammate, which saw him move onto 49 goals across 65 matches for Liverpool before adding his 50th six minutes into the second half.
Salah’s brilliance is of course nothing new to Klopp, who reserved special praise for Shaqiri while complimenting the reigning PFA Players’ Player of the Year.
“I think he would say thanks to his teammates, its quite difficult to score goals without these wonderful passes, crosses. The first goal he scored was a genius little link-up play by Shaq,” Klopp told post-match reporters during BT’s Wednesday night coverage.
“If you work hard, are in the right spaces, if your teammates see you and you make the right runs, you will score. It’s an exceptional number, [and] hopefully he can continue. What’s the next record he can reach?”
Shaqiri stats show red-hot assist streak
One of four players to join Liverpool in the summer – along with Naby Keita, Fabinho and Alisson – Shaqiri, no stranger to English football having played for Stoke between 2015 and 2018, has gradually assimilated into Klopp’s first team.
Renowned for his goalscoring, particularly from long range, as well as creativity, Shaqiri has been making an impact of late. Having featured across eight matches to date, with half of those coming from the start, he’s created at least one goal in each of his last three outings for the Reds: against Red Star (Salah), Huddersfield (Salah) and Chelsea (Daniel Sturridge).
In fact, at one point against the Serbian champions, he and left-back Andy Robertson were Liverpool’s immediate creative threat.
The assist providers for Liverpool's last four goals across all competitions:
️ Xherdan Shaqiri
The Reds' Swiss Army Knife cutting teams apart. pic.twitter.com/s6bFE7gpwH
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) October 24, 2018
Such form cannot be ignored and given Liverpool’s scintillating front-three it remains to be seen whether ‘Shaq’ is able to establish a regular starting berth for himself under Klopp.
The post Mohamed Salah should thank Liverpool “genius” Xherdan Shaqiri, says Jurgen Klopp appeared first on Squawka News.
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