Jurgen Klopp told Mohamed Salah something he's never told any other player after Liverpool plan changed

Klopp has saluted the relentless desire of record-breaker Mohamed Salah – as he revealed the unusual message he gave the Liverpool forward.

Salah became the first Reds player in history to score at least 20 goals in seven successive seasons

The 31-year-old was making his first Liverpool start since New Year’s Day having been absent first through international duty and then a hamstring complaint.

Klopp said of Salah's landmark:

"The stat is not really surprising, because he is an outstanding player."

“I’m less surprised than maybe some others, I thought it had already happened to be honest but he was injured for a while, otherwise he would have done it in January or February. But great, very good, and great to have him back.

“In seven years together with him, the one problem we never had was consistency. Mo is just delivering and delivering and delivering, his desire doesn’t stop, his quality is there and his desire to score doesn’t stop.

"He has improved in so many aspects since he started here. That’s how it is, he will not stop.”

Liverpool had planned on substituting Salah with around 20 minutes remaining only for Clark to pick up an ankle injury that forced him to be replaced.

Klopp explained:

"Mo is a special story, it was not the plan that he plays 90 minutes, the plan was to take him off when we brought on Mateusz but Bobby sat in front of me and it was clear Bobby had to go off.

"But Mo is experienced enough that he recovered already during the game. I told him not to defend any more, I don’t think I’ve ever said that to a player before – might be different on Sunday!”

"Bobby, it is really nice to see the boys develop and flourish, it was a top performance, a real performance,”

"A goal yes, he set a goal up winning the ball back high with a really high press situation, top, top, top and controlling the game with all the excitement inside that he definitely still has, it’s fantastic.

“He is the only one we worry about a little bit, I hope it is nothing but he sat there and said he felt something so we had to take him off. Besides that, everybody else should be fine.”