Jurgen Klopp has told Mohamed Salah to just "let it flow" as the Liverpool striker approaches a landmark afternoon in the middle of a mini-goal drought.
Salah is expected to make his 200th league appearance for the Reds at Wolverhampton Wanderers today aiming to match a club record of goals scored in that period, having already netted 125 times in the top flight.
The Egyptian has scored two more than Roger Hunt and three more than Ian Rush after 200 games, and needs one more in his next outing to equal the tally of Gordon Hodgson.
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While Salah - who signed a lucrative new contract in the summer - has 17 goals this season, he has netted just once in his last seven outings and was guilty of a poor miss in last weekend's FA Cup fourth round defeat at Brighton and Hove Albion.
But Klopp has defended the 30-year-old and is confident the forward will soon be back on the scoresheet.
“Attitude is not Mo’s problem," said the Reds boss. "He is a world-class athlete. He is the first in and last out and works hard. Now he is not scoring but I think there are people out there who say ‘why did they give Klopp a new contract?’. This is the world we live and it is completely fine.
"When we don’t deliver in moments there is criticism. You can question character, knowledge, ability, everything. But you cannot score the goals Mo has scored if you are not an outstanding, world class footballer. Even then you can’t do that constantly.
"He needs to just let it flow. There are moments when he would have scored last year. The Brighton game, 100% it is goal and now not. You think that is something to do with the new contract? That is just not right."
Manchester City forward Erling Haaland, Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford of Manchester United are the only Premier League players to have scored more club goals than Salah this season.
And Klopp added: "The things are like they are and we can only stop all these questions by performing to our top level and that is what we will do. We will do the work. It will not happen overnight. We made steps. It is not like what we said four weeks ago was useless and we didn’t learn anything. We are really on it and we are positive.
"We want to play the games and we believe in our chance of doing something special, even this year. We will not be the leader of the pack at the moment but we are in a position where we can improve a lot. We play tomorrow and start from there.”
With Ibrahima Konate out, Joel Matip is poised to return at centre-back alongside Joe Gomez. Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Curtis Jones are all pressing for a start in midfield, while Darwin Nunez is vying for a slot in attack. Fabio Carvalho and Nat Phillips, who missed out last weekend through injury and illness respectively, are back available.
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