Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has hailed Mohamed Salah after he broke Thierry Henry’s European record on Thursday night.
Salah came off the bench and scored in their 5-1 thrashing of French Ligue 1 side Toulouse in their Europa League clash, taking a pass before smashing his effort into the roof of the net.
Salah (43) overtook Henry’s record (42) for the most goals by a Premier League player in Europe.
The strike was his ninth goal of the 2023/24 campaign. The Egyptian attacker is now just five away from 200 goals for the Merseyside club.
Speaking ahead of their Premier League clash with Nottingham Forest, Klopp accepted that Salah has managed to take his remarkable level up a notch.
Quizzed on whether there is an extra level of confidence in Salah’s play, Klopp said (via LFC’s official website): “Yes, it’s obvious that he just enjoys the group.
“If you saw him on the bench, he wants to play, always! But he enjoyed as well watching the other boys and then coming on and scoring the goal.
“I’m really happy for him. He is growing with the role he has for us and in football, maybe in general.
“To show that to stay on [the] top level, it’s nice to enjoy the moment, and then you go again – and that’s what he obviously is doing.
“I didn’t know about the records. Maybe he would have broken a few more records if I would be more into that because I think I left him out once when he could have broken a record! It was not intentional. I’m just not too much in this.
“He’s just such a good player. We appreciate him, and everybody will appreciate him for sure even more after his career because then you will realise, ‘Wow, we saw something really special.'”
Liverpool host Forest at Anfield tomorrow, looking to continue their fine start to the season.
The Reds are fourth in the Premier League, only three points away from Tottenham Hotspur at the top.
Klopp will hope they pick up another three points as they try to keep up their title challenge.