Klopp plays down Salah reaction after substituting top striker

Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah vies for the ball with Chelsea’s Mason Mount during Thursday’s English Premier League match at Anfield Stadium. (Reuters)
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Updated 06 March 2021
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Klopp plays down Salah reaction after substituting top striker

  • Liverpool languishing in 7th place in Premier League and are 4 points behind Chelsea

LONDON: Jurgen Klopp has played down any potential fallout following Mohamed Salah’s show of displeasure after his substitution in Liverpool’s 1-0 defeat by Chelsea.

The Egypt international made no secret of his annoyance at being withdrawn just after the hour mark at Anfield on Thursday as the champions slipped to a fifth successive home league defeat for the first time in their history.
Liverpool are languishing in seventh place in the Premier League and are four points behind fourth-placed Chelsea ahead of Sunday’s home game against lowly Fulham.
Klopp said he could not make substitutions on the basis of what reaction it created, adding he took off the Premier League’s leading scorer because he thought he was feeling the intensity of the game.
“I’m not even sure if this situation is now a reason for a ‘proper talk’ about it,” he said on Friday.
“We are 1-0 down, that makes no player happy. You go off and you react in different ways because you are not happy.
“You get subbed, you are a striker and you think you should stay on the pitch. That’s all completely clear and not an issue, it is just normal life.”
Klopp said managers were forced to make quick judgments on the basis of what they saw on the pitch.
“We make these decisions in the moment and not with any thoughts in behind, the problem only is you only have to explain it after the game and the day after the game,” he said.
“These kind of stories (rumors of unhappiness) so far didn’t happen. I cannot guarantee for the future and for all times it will never happen but these kind of discussions we never had.”
Salah has scored 17 Premier League goals this season and needs only one more to register 25 for the campaign in all competitions for the third time in four seasons at Anfield.
Previously his tally has been supplemented by significant contributions from Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino but his fellow forward are well short of their usual numbers.
Mane has just 11 in all competitions and Firmino six, while Diogo Jota, who made his comeback against Chelsea after three months out with a knee injury, has nine goals.
“We all have to improve,” said Klopp. “Mo still has a great scoring record and I am sure everyone knows and he knows himself even he could have scored more goals.
“But that, Mo’s goalscoring, is not our problem. But in general we have to improve, 100 percent.”


Messi bags 899th goal as Miami down DC United

Updated 08 March 2026
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Messi bags 899th goal as Miami down DC United

  • The Argentine superstar’s 80th goal for Miami takes his career tally to 899, leaving him just one away from reaching the 900-goal milestone

WASHINGTON, United States: Lionel Messi moved to the brink of another goalscoring milestone as Inter Miami bagged their second win of the Major League Soccer season with a 2-1 victory over DC United on Saturday.
Messi, who scored twice in Miami’s Florida derby win over Orlando last week, bagged his third goal of the season with a deft chipped finish in the 27th minute at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.
The Argentine superstar’s 80th goal for Miami takes his career tally to 899, leaving him just one away from reaching the 900-goal milestone.
The eight-time Ballon D’Or winner, who turns 39 in June, scored 672 goals for Barcelona earlier in his career and 32 at Paris Saint-Germain, with a further 115 international goals for Argentina.
Saturday’s win moved the reigning MLS champions up the Eastern Conference standings into third place with six points from three games.
Miami, who on Thursday were guests of President Donald Trump at a White House reception, took the lead in the 17th minute with a superb curling shot from the edge of the area by Messi’s Argentina team-mate Rodrigo De Paul.
Messi then doubled Miami’s lead 10 minutes later, latching on to a sublime through ball from Mateo Silvetti and dinking a first-time finish over the advancing DC United goalkeeper Sean Johnson.
United rallied after half-time, and were given hope when Israeli forward Tai Baribo pulled a goal back in the 75th minute.
Miami though were able to hold off United in the closing stages to seal victory.