Salah can maintain Form- Klopp

Jurgen Klopp is confident
Mohamed Salah will be able to maintain his
excellent form for the entirety of the 2017-18
season, even if he is a doubt for Liverpool's next
game on Monday.
Mohamed Salah's second-half double saw
Liverpool produce a come-from-behind win over
Leicester City at Anfield on Saturday afternoon.
The Egyptian's goals took his season tally to 23
in all competitions, which is the most by a
Liverpool player before the new year since Roger
Hunt in 1961-62.
"Yes, he can keep that standard for sure," Klopp
told a news conference. "He's still a young player,
he can improve. It's not only about scoring, it's
about other situations as well. He's so important
for us.
"But he knows and I know he couldn't score if he
did not have the fantastic support of the other
boys."
"I think he can keep this standard, but that's
normal. All the boys can keep the standards they
have in the moment. It's not that it's only a run
or something. The boys show their quality and
we did that already a few times."
Salah played 83 minutes of the match and was
replaced by Georginio Wijnaldum, with Klopp
revealing the goal scorer was suffering from a
slight injury issue and would need to have his
fitness assessed ahead of the New Year's Day
trip to Burnley.
"I don't know in this moment exactly, but he was
limping and that's never a good sign," Klopp
added. "To be honest, we have to see what his
problem was. We will see what he can do for the
next game."
Saturday's comeback extended Liverpool's
unbeaten run to 15 games in all competitions and
ensured they would stay in the top four of the
Premier League as they entered 2018.
Klopp was particularly pleased with the response
from his players after Jamie Vardy put Leicester
into the lead inside two minutes.
"You don't want to be 1-0 down, but if you're
1-0 down that early in the game then you want to
see the reaction you saw tonight," he said.
"That's the best reaction we showed so far when
being 1-0 down.
"It was fantastic. I didn't see one nervous player,
any real reaction in a negative way. We kept on
going and created and played brilliant football.
Defensively we were really strong.
"The main strength of Leicester is counter-
attacking and quick transition, and if you're 1-0
down then it plays in their hands. That makes it
more difficult.
"We did really well and I liked the first half a lot,
apart from the result. Everybody in the stadium
reacted in the right way and saw: 'Wow, what a
game that is.'
"It was 100 percent one of the best [games]
we've played so far."
Liverpool's £75 million signing Virgil van Dijk was
in attendance at Anfield for the first time since his
move from Southampton was confirmed earlier in
the week.
When asked whether the signing of the Dutch
centre-half has made certain Liverpool players
nervous, Klopp said: "Look, that's professional
football. The really good players will always say
the challenge with other players for a position in a
team will always help you.
"We cannot go in a season with two centre-
halves. Hopefully nothing happens. The third one
is already logical [and] if you have a fourth one
then it's even better.
"No player should and can play a whole season.
A club [like] Liverpool, we need to react in
situations when a few are maybe not top level or
injured. That's what we did.
"I don't think the boys were nervous. I couldn't
see any of that tonight. They don't have any
reason to be nervous because I was really
pleased about the development of these players.
"We have to fight and to battle with the biggest
teams in world football, so we cannot go there
with a group of 11 and being best friends
everyday. We need to have a squad who is ready
for that and that's what we are building step by
step."