Klopp Talk: High Praise For Liverpool’s Forward Line

Barring some late miracle with VVD and/or Keita, this team is more or less the same as last season’s. (Minus Lucas, which I’m still grieving, and also minus Coutinho in either body or spirit, which I’m trying to come to grips with.) Which means, like last year, this Liverpool team is going to live and die by its forward line.

Fortunately, our Front Three is pretty great! The attacking combo of Sadio Mané, Roberto Firmino, and Mohamed Salah is low-key one of the strongest in the Premier League. Plenty of pundits and observers are lukewarm on this forward line, but between you and me? These guys can be lethal. If they can all get clicking together (and stay healthy), the rest of the league won’t stand a chance.

Reds boss Jürgen Klopp seems to agree!

When asked about Mané:

“Sadio has made a big step; being clearer in all the situations, passing in the right moment, dribbling in the right moments, always being a goal threat. He had a long break but he has started so well. Last season he didn’t start too badly either. At Arsenal he scored a nice goal. Sadio is not at the limit. Like all these boys, he can still improve.”

On Salah, he said:

“You can see Mo is on the way there. [He is] not that used to it, not using the body that much. He’s a different player to Sadio: same speed, but a different player. He played a completely different position last season. He was the second striker at Roma. He is a winger – he can play this. He has defended 500 per cent more already than he did in the whole of last season.”

Finally, Klopp had this to say about Bobby Firm:

“He is an unbelievable player, working hard. Everybody speaks about the passing game, but it’s the challenges he makes defensively, chasing them from behind, all over the pitch. [Hoffenheim] couldn’t get rid of him. That is the character you need to make the next step with a team which is already good.”

But hey, I’m sure Arsenal will be able to keep this front three in check. After all, they have such staunch defenders as Laurent Koscielny and Héctor Bellerín and... *squints*... Sead Kolašinac...

...

bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

<ahem>

Right, sorry about that, don’t know what came over me.