Jürgen Klopp Ahead Of Sparta Prague Game: ‘We need to build up Mohamed Salah’

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Jürgen Klopp spoke about several things during his pre-match press conference ahead of Liverpool versus Sparta Prague. One of the things he spoke about was the need to build up Mohamed Salah who is fresh from injury.

Sparta Prague and Liverpool will meet again after the Merseyside Reds beat them 5-1 at Sparta Prague’s home. They will wrestle once more, but this time at Liverpool, to decide who gets past the Europa Cup round 16.

Newly-returned Salah has been a substitute in few recent matches, but there are questions whether he would play full-time this time.

Speaking on Wednesday, German gaffer Klopp said the following about Salah:

‘It’s possible it would have been possible for him to play longer in the last game [against City], but it was just the game, how it was.

‘It’s important that we build up Mo, obviously super-important, but in this game changing at half-time was not necessary or possible [because] we have to deal with changes carefully.

‘So, yeah, he is ready. He is top fit, everything is good now and we don’t have to deal with these kind of things anymore. I’m not sure if he is ready for 90 minutes and I’m not sure we should do 90 minutes, but he’s ready to start so that’s how it is.

‘He would have been ready to start in the last game but then you don’t know for how long it makes sense and that’s always the problem when players come back.

‘I can’t remember a game where I thought, “Mo Salah cannot play, no problem.” It just never happened, so it’s not cool to not have him but there was a game last Sunday and there are 10 more Premier League games and hopefully a lot more cup and European games. They are all as important and Mo was completely fine with that.

‘Would he have loved to play a little bit longer? Probably, yes, but I cannot before the game decide when we do what and these kind of things. But he’s ready to start.

‘Should that then be 90 minutes on the pitch? That depends on how it looks in that moment but we all know Mo usually can play game after game after game after game.

‘Now he was out for a surprisingly long time, but now he is back and we have to make sure that we can really count on him consistently again.’

Liverpool still sits among the leaders at the Premier League table.