Jurgen Klopp 'not surprised' by Mohamed Salah's goalscoring record

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has admitted he was not surprised to see Mohamed Salah score his 20th and 21st goals of the season in Sunday's 3-1 win over West Ham United, making him the first Liverpool striker to hit the 20-goal mark in four straight seasons since Ian Rush.

Klopp's side were made to work hard for their win but ultimately had too much quality for West Ham, and it was Salah who stole the show with two excellent goals - the second of which saw the Egyptian finish off a delightful team move with a perfect chip.

The goals put Salah into the history books once again for Liverpool, channelling the goalscoring heroics of the great Rush, who bagged 20 in six consecutive seasons between 1981 and 1987, and Klopp admitted he always knew such a record was coming.

"I’m not surprised," he said (via the club's official website). "I work on a daily basis together with him and he will never stop having a massive desire for scoring goals. For sure not. He is a world-class player, there is no doubt about that.

"How I said in the last few weeks when we didn’t score that many, the only thing you can do is try and try and try again. You have to make good decisions, or better decisions. Tonight he didn’t force it. The first goal was a proper smart goal and in the last few weeks he probably would have tried to shoot through the legs or whatever, but this [tonight] was really keeping the overview and chipping the ball into the far corner. Top-class goal.

"He played a super game. He was really in the game, he was really involved, he was flexible and all these kind of things. He kept the ball, passing was good, in the end with the controlling of the game he was really good.

"The first goal is just a super smart goal. I didn’t see it back, but from my perspective I think Fabianski couldn’t see the ball really because the box was full and he chipped it into the far corner. The second goal, what a counter-attack – two passes until Mo got the ball. The last pass was obviously spectacular from Shaq, the first touch from Mo outstanding, outstanding, world-class and then nice finish. Top game, top goals."

Salah was also eager to give credit to Xherdan Shaqiri's whose inch-perfect pass gave Salah all the space in the world to bag his second goal.

"I just keep practising in training for my right foot and left foot," Salah added. "But it was a good ball from Shaq. 

"I have to give him credit as well for the lovely ball from him. I just kept the first touch and the second was the finish.

"If you want to win the league, you have to win every game. But this year City were struggling in the beginning and now we were struggling three or four games ago. You just need to keep winning if you want to really win the Premier League."

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