No Mo rest as Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp looks to be the best

JURGEN KLOPP has come under fire for over-rotating his starting line-up in the last couple of games.

But there’s little chance Mo Salah is going to be rested any time soon.

The Egyptian is the Premier League’s Player of the Month and went into this weekend’s fixtures having scored more goals than Harry Kane, Sergio Aguero and Alvaro Morata.

Klopp has been criticised recently for benching the other three members of his “Fab Four” – Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane – but Salah has played a total of 1284 minutes this season, more than any other Liverpool outfield player.

“He starts very often because he is in a very good moment and it’s difficult to think about leaving him out,” says Klopp.

“He didn’t start at Stoke the other week and we take him off as soon as possible during games.

“He’s a naturally fit player. The medical department rarely reports any issues with him.

“When in the same week you hear the name of a player twice from them it’s pretty clear he is not in the squad or on the bench.

“I don’t know if I’m surprised by how well he’s done and I didn’t set a goals target for him before when we signed him last summer.

“We knew we were getting a very offensive-minded midfielder, who in a lot of games is a striker but also has the ability to set up goals.

“That what was the package we wanted, and we got it, so that’s cool.

“He was a kid when he was last in the Premier League at Chelsea. We all need help, especially when you’re a young player in a foreign, very strong, very demanding league.

“With Chelsea, nobody is to blame. They had a fantastic team when he was there.

“Of course we had to watch him in a lot of games, look at his physicality, whether he would be strong enough for challenges.

“The scouting department did a fantastic job because they didn’t get out of our ears. They kept on at us, saying: ‘He is 100% ready.’

“If you watch him only on television he looks quite skinny but when I first met him I could see he was sturdy.

“In his career he made a lot of brave decisions, like going from Basel to Chelsea.

“For a player from Egypt it’s a dream to go to a really big club in England. But when it didn’t really work out that didn’t make him think he wasn’t good enough.

“He wanted to prove he was, so he went to Italy and he proved everything in another difficult league for a striker.

“For us he has been fantastic, the best player in the first half of the season.

“He, like all the other players here, can improve. The age group of the team is really good for development.”

Liverpool go to Bournemouth today at the end of a week when there’s been a feeling of flatness with two home draws after a run of eight games which brought 29 goals.

Part of that is due to Manchester City’s dominance of the Premier League and the sense the title race is already over.

“Expectations of us are high but they should be because we have shown we are able to do things differently,” says Klopp.

“We played really well against Everton and were not good enough against West Brom, but I can’t judge the season day by day.

“Only the No.1 position is away from us just now. Does mean you have to stop trying to play the best season of the last five or 10 years?

“We can still achieve that and that’s what we’re going for.”