Liverpool FC Thread #154 :- Mohamed Salah - The record breaker

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That man again.

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Mohamed Salah has been named the Champions League Player of the Week.

The Liverpool forward inspired his team to a 5-2 victory over AS Roma in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Tuesday night.

Against his former club, Salah netted each of the opening two goals and then laid on further strikes for Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino at Anfield.

Salah saw off competition from Real Madrid’s Marcelo to take the UEFA award.

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Jürgen Klopp confirmed Sadio Mane has an injury issue and the Liverpool forward will be assessed ahead of Saturday's meeting with Stoke City.

The No.19 missed training on Thursday but, at his pre-match press conference, the manager reported the problem is ‘not that serious’.

“Of course there is something. We will see,” said Klopp when asked for an update on Mane.

“It is not that serious; there is a chance for tomorrow. If we use that chance or not… it is quite early in the day.

“In these times, you always have to use each second and minute, speak to the player, speak to the Doc, speak to the physiotherapists and all that stuff. At the end, you have to make a decision and I will make a decision.”

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Jürgen Klopp has discussed Steven Gerrard's coaching future.

At his pre-match press conference on Friday, the Liverpool manager was asked about the possibility of the U18s boss taking up a role at another club.

“I’m not worried because, if – and a big if – something would happen, it was always clear that Steven is, was and will always be a Liverpool legend,” said Klopp.

“So whatever he wants to do, we support him in that. It’s as easy as that. But there is no decision. I don’t even know what the situation is at the moment. But nobody told me there is any decision.

“I can imagine that clubs are interested in signing Stevie – [he has] massive experience as a player and now a year as a manager. I would think about him as well if I owned a club. That’s pretty normal.

“One day it will happen, either here or somewhere else. It’s his decision – he’s old enough to decide things like that. The only thing I can say is that we would support him in all directions.”

He continued: “The relationship and the work together with Steven is brilliant, fantastic. How you can imagine, I would have loved to have worked together with him as a player – but I was a little bit late for that.

“When we met in the first moment we had a good first chat and from then it developed really brilliantly. He wanted to learn, he learned. He wanted to do the job, he did the job.

“As a Liverpool youth coach you have a bunch of good players around, it’s not that you have to tell them everything about football. It’s a really good start and he used the time.

“So if he thinks he’s ready, he’s ready. That’s how it is.

“He had a very, very good period in the first part of the season when all the players were there. Then we started giving players on loan, which led to the situation that other players came into our squad. That’s not the nicest part for a youth coach and I can imagine he will not miss that; you want to make a line-up and the first-team coach tells you, ‘Yes, it’s a good idea but I need three of them’ and they’re probably not the worst players in the squad. That doesn’t make life easier. He had that difficult part of the season and it was quite quick learning – and he did.

“If he wants to do something different – a really big if – we would be completely happy for him and support him. As long as he’s not the Everton or Manchester United manager, we would still help him if he has questions! There’s absolutely no doubt about that.”

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Jose Mourinho rewriting history over Mohamed Salah after dismissing Liverpool man three years ago

Jose Mourinho is perceived as being a prime deflector of criticism.

During his spells at Chelsea and Manchester United, he is often considered a manager who will sometimes absolve himself of blame in order in order to preserve his reputation.

Despite that, Mourinho is a fine manager - even if his football does not always excite. The Portuguese boss is a proven champion, with a litany of titles to show for his work across several countries.

There is clearly a method behind the madness.

But Liverpool supporters would have raised a smile at his latest comments over Mohamed Salah.

"People say that I was the one that sold Salah and it is the opposite," he told ESPN Brasil. "I bought Salah.

"It is the opposite. I was the one that bought Salah. I was the one that told Chelsea to buy Salah. It was with me in charge that Salah came to Chelsea. But he came as a young kid, physically he was not ready, mentally he was not ready, socially and culturally he was lost and everything was tough for him.



"We decided to put him on loan and he asked for that as well. He wanted to play more minutes, to mature, he wanted to go and we sent him on loan to Fiorentina, and at Fiorentina he started to mature.

"Chelsea decided to sell him, OK?

"And when they say that I was the one that sold him it is a lie."

With the subtlety of a sledgehammer, Mourinho ensured there could be no doubt: He had nothing to do with the sale of Salah.

Yet his comments from July 2015 paint a different picture.

At that point, Salah had been away from Chelsea for six months, moving to Fiorentina on loan in January.

His move to Italy ended a difficult year at Stamford Bridge, where he made just 19 appearances under Mourinho.

Salah was set to return to Chelsea - the newly-crowned Premier League champions - for the 2015/16 season after his loan spell finished.

Barcelona wide man Pedro was being linked with a move to West London but Mourinho denied that.

He told Sky Sports: “I have five wingers, if I lose one maybe I am interested in another but at this moment I have balance and quality and numbers.

“I am looking for a defender to finish this balance in our squad and after that we are ready to answer anything that can happen to our players.”

He did, however, confirm one player was surplus to requirements.

Mo Salah.

“I see his future elsewhere,” Mourinho added. “Either on loan or sold with an offer we are happy to accept.

"We have five wingers and it is better not to have Salah back.”

That would seem to contradict Mourinho's words this week.

Busted.


lol anything positive he is involved but anything negative is "bo wa ay taichi"

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What A Guy

Liverpudlians still love Lucas Leiva, and Lucas Leiva still loves Liverpudlians.

But he’s took it one step further this week by helping the Reds arrange a training base in Italy ahead of next week’s second-leg against Roma at the Stadio Olimpico.

Lucas, who is plying his trade for Lazio, acted as an ‘intermediary’ to make the agreement between current and former employers possible, say Sky Sports.

What a top guy!

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Mohamed Salah has been named Champions League player of the week…for the ̶f̶i̶r̶s̶t̶ ̶s̶e̶c̶o̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶r̶d̶ fourth time this season

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Emre Can is “impressed with the ambition of Liverpool” this season and may now decide to put pen to paper and sign a new contract. [TuttoSport]