Jurgen Klopp said on Tuesday that Liverpool are reaping the benefits of the footballing maturity Mohamed Salah gained during his spell at Roma.
The 25-year-old Egyptian returns to the Stadio Olimpico for Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final second leg looking to add to his 43 goals this season -- including two in last week’s first leg at Anfield -- compared to 34 over two seasons for the Italian club.
“He has matured. He got confidence here. He came from Chelsea to Florence and played a good season, not as good as the season at Rome, and then he grew up and is now the player he is,” Klopp told a press conference in the Italian capital.
“We are the lucky guys who have him now in the team, that’s how it is. It’s not that I would’ve explained to him exactly how to score goals, he knew that before already, but each striker in the world doesn’t start as an 18-year-old goal-getter.
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“He needs to make his own experiences and that’s what Mo did in very difficult circumstances.
{{/usCountry}}“He needs to make his own experiences and that’s what Mo did in very difficult circumstances.
{{/usCountry}}“Coming early from Egypt to Switzerland and doing all that journey, and carrying all that responsibility for all the people, for a whole country, and he is really quite cool with it.
“At the end he has good teammates -- they love helping him and they love how he helps them. That’s it.”
Salah was named the English football writers’ footballer of the year on Tuesday, completing a personal double after also winning the players’ award.
Liverpool take a 5-2 aggregate lead into the second leg as they look to reach an eighth European Cup final but first since 2007.