Klopp: Salah’s performance a “good sign”

Maybe not a match for the record books, Liverpool’s friendly visit to the DW Stadium nevertheless wielded some positive signs for the boss, who said he liked the way the players were easing into a new system.

“First half we saw a lot of pieces of good football, second half I would say was a little bit boring,” Klopp admitted to the official site.

“It’s always a challenge for the players, we change the system, we want to bring them all on the pitch in these games for 45 minutes because the physical aspect is really important. You could see it was not that fine-tuned, obviously, but it’s important for all of them to get the minutes. As you can imagine, I’m not overly excited about the performance, but it’s completely OK.”

The one bright spot for the fans was the chance to see new player Mohamed Salah jump into the fray with his Reds debut. Considering the limited time he had to acclimate himself to the team and their style of play, the Egypt international impressed — even scoring Liverpool’s only goal of the game, at just about halftime.

Regarding the record-breaking signing, Klopp said, “You saw he had no idea how we defend usually, so he was really not involved in this. He had two days with us, then he had to go to Paris, get the papers, but now he’s here and we thought ‘let’s play him’.

“He’s really used to a completely different way of defending, but the first situation, nice sprint. And the goal was maybe the easiest situation in the game, but they played a few wonderful pieces of football: Roberto, Phil, Adam, Gini in the No.6 position was good. So it was OK, just not where they can be. It’s just a sign, but that’s important.”

Next stop for the club is Asia for the Premier League Asia Trophy, where Salah will have more of a chance to get used to his new teammates as we come up on less than a month until new the start of the new season.