LIVERPOOL: Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says Mohamed Salah should use Sadio Mane as inspiration as the Egypt star looks to hit peak form after an inconsistent season.
Salah scored 44 times in his debut season with Liverpool, but his second campaign has not been so smooth.
Although Salah has 20 goals in the current campaign, his goalless run of seven matches is the longest he has experienced since a 10-game streak for Roma in 2015-16.
That is a concern, with Liverpool chasing their first top-flight title since 1990 and also through to the Champions League quarterfinals.
Fortunately for Liverpool, Senegal winger Mane is in fine form and has moved level on 20 goals with Salah, after netting 11 in as many games.
Mane had gone goalless in eight outings in November and December during a spell of 17 matches in which he scored just three times.
Having seen Mane work through his drought successfully, Klopp believes Salah will soon see his luck change in front of goal as well.
“Sadio played pretty much always like this but now he is always in the right spot in the right moment. In football it’s sometimes like this,” Klopp told Liverpool’s website.
“He is in a really good moment, of course. The only thing he did when he was not always in the right spot was work and work and work.
“That’s exactly what Mo has to do, exactly the same, just work, do the right things and it will come again.
“He’s just rather unlucky, where Sadio is lucky in the moment — he is in brilliant shape, that’s true.
“But then, he is in the right shape and maybe a yard away from him is Mo, but somebody else scored. That’s how it is, all good.”
Jurgen Klopp tells out-of-form Mohamed Salah to use teammate Sadio Mane as inspiration
Jurgen Klopp tells out-of-form Mohamed Salah to use teammate Sadio Mane as inspiration
- Egyptian ace hasn't scored for seven matches, his worst run since 2015.
- Klopp cool over form but tells star man Mane is the one to learn from.
Pakistan bowler Tariq and his unusual delivery courts controversy at the T20 World Cup
- Offspinner’s unconventional bowling action has already mesmerized some of the big names
- As is often the case in cricket, the reasons for Usman Tariq’s potential illegal delivery are complicated
ISLAMABAD: With a momentary pause in his delivery and his statue-like pose at the crease, Pakistan spin bowler Usman Tariq has created plenty of attention at cricket’s Twenty20 World Cup.
Just enough, it seems, to throw off opposing batters.
With it has come a fair share of controversy — that his pause-and sling style of bowling is an illegal delivery, or in cricket parlance, chucking. He’s already been reported twice, but cleared, by Pakistani cricket authorities.
The 28-year-old offspinner’s unconventional bowling action has already mesmerized some of the big names in shortest format of the game and has seen him taking three wickets against an inexperienced United States in Sri Lanka this week in what was his first T20 World Cup game.
As is often the case in cricket, the reasons for Tariq’s potential illegal delivery are complicated.
First there is the so-called “15-degree debate” — that bowlers cannot exceed the ICC’s 15-degree elbow flex limit, which is nearly impossible for on-field umpires to judge accurately in real time.
Another talking point has been the pause in Tariq’s delivery stride. Some critics, including former India cricketer Shreevats Goswami, compare it to a football penalty run-up that would be ruled illegal if the shooter stops midway.
Baffling the batters
Batters like Cameron Green of Australia and South African Dewald Brevis are a few notable players that were flummoxed by Tariq’s bowling action.
Power-hitter Brevis fell to Tariq’s only second ball in T20 international cricket in November. Green shook his head in disbelief and mocked Tariq’s bowling action close to the boundary line — but later apologized — when he walked back after slicing a wide delivery straight to the cover fielder during Pakistan’s 3-0 sweep of Australia at Lahore.
Tariq’s rise in T20 cricket has also seen him taking a hat-trick at Rawalpindi when he took 4-18 against Zimbabwe during the tri-series in November. He has taken 11 wickets off his 88 balls in only four T20 internationals.
It was no surprise when selectors included Tariq in the 15-man T20 World Cup squad, knowing that pitches in Sri Lanka would suit slow bowlers more than pacemen.
Tariq’s journey to top-level cricket wasn’t a smooth one. He was twice reported for suspect bowling action during country’s premier domestic T20 tournament — the Pakistan Super League — over the last two seasons, but on both occasions he was cleared after testing at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore.
“I have two elbows in my arm,” Tariq said. “My arm bends naturally. I have got this tested and cleared. Everyone feels I bend my arm and all that. My bent arm is a biological issue.”
Tariq has also featured in the Caribbean Premier League and with his deceptive bowling action he was the tournament’s second-highest wicket taker for champions Trinbago Knight Riders.
Long pause a problem
“The batters are struggling to read Tariq because of the long pause the moment he steps on the bowling crease,” former Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, who has played with Tariq in the PSL’s Quetta Gladiators, said.
“The long pause disturbs all the concentration of batters and when he bowls a fastish (delivery, after a long pause), or even a slow ball, it leaves the batters clueless.”
Less than three months ago, Tariq said he had dreamed about playing against archrival India. And after Pakistan withdrew its boycott of Sunday’s game in the T20 World Cup, Tariq’s dream could come true if Pakistan uses five spinners against India.
“I wish there’s a match against India and I can win the game for Pakistan single-handedly,” Tariq said then. “My coaches have injected this thing in me that ‘you have to win matches single-handedly’.”
On Sunday against India, Tariq could do just that.
