Like Kobe Bryant, Mané and Salah Will Shrug Off Misses, Says Jürgen Klopp

Mo Salah, Kobe Bryant and Sadio Mané. Composite: Getty Images
Mo Salah, Kobe Bryant and Sadio Mané. Composite: Getty Images
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Like Kobe Bryant, Mané and Salah Will Shrug Off Misses, Says Jürgen Klopp

Mo Salah, Kobe Bryant and Sadio Mané. Composite: Getty Images
Mo Salah, Kobe Bryant and Sadio Mané. Composite: Getty Images

Jürgen Klopp believes Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah will follow the example of Kobe Bryant by showing the best can cope with failure and using their misses to spur them on.

Mané has gone nine games without scoring and spurned a golden chance when he blazed over the bar in Liverpool’s defeat at Leicester on Tuesday, while Salah missed a penalty in the Premier League for the first time since 2017.

But Klopp, who will not be on the touchline at Chelsea on Sunday after testing positive for Covid, argued that disappointment is something elite sportsmen encounter more often than lesser players because of their bravery in taking responsibility time and again and getting into the positions to miss. He cited how Bryant, who scored the fourth-most points in the NBA, holds the record for most missed shots, 14,481.

“Top, top, top-class players deal constantly with failure,” Klopp said. “That’s our life. That’s what you learn pretty early as a footballer. The better you are, the more often you will fail because you come constantly in these decisive moments.

“None of us has ever succeeded in all difficult situations. That’s how it is. Kobe Bryant is still the player with the most missed situations in NBA history and he is one of the greatest players ever.

“You have to try it. You have to come in these situations and then you can fail. If you fail there, no problem, go again and everything will be fine. That is pretty much the mindset Mo is in and Sadio as well.”

Salah and Mané will make their final appearances before going to the African Cup of Nations but with a very different backdrop. Whereas the Senegalese has equalled his longest drought for Liverpool, the Egyptian has been directly involved in an unrivalled 24 goals in the Premier League this season.

As Klopp accepted, Salah rarely needs to respond to major setbacks. “We don’t have a lot of experience with Mo of dealing with ‘crisis’ or whatever because he didn’t have to,” he said.

“The penalty just makes him more greedy to score a goal in the game, usually, and if we bring him more often in promising situations then I am pretty sure he would have finished one of them off.”

Mané has not scored any of Liverpool’s past 25 goals but does have a propensity to deliver goals in fits and spurts and Klopp is convinced his latest barren run will end. “Sadio has no problem with confidence, but the momentum finishing-wise is not there at the moment,” he said.

“Pretty much all strikers have to go through these kind of things. You have to take it from time to time and then it will be good again. It happened to Sadio before and he came out of it. He scored incredibly important goals for us and I’m really positive that he has chances to score [today].”

His belief that Mané is performing well was supported by the footage compiled by one of his backroom staff when he got a welcome surprise on Friday. “One of our analysts knocks on my door and asks if I have two minutes.” Klopp said. “He made a video to show Sadio how much he contributes to our game and how good he is at the moments, how good he is there and in situations.

“The intention was to show he should not be too worried that the finishing is not there at the moment. He’s still an incredibly important player for us. That is the view we have on him.”



Salah Double Sends Liverpool 8 Points Clear in Premier League as United Draws First Game with Amorim

 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah leaves the pitch after the English Premier League soccer match between Southampton and Liverpool in Southampton, England, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
Liverpool's Mohamed Salah leaves the pitch after the English Premier League soccer match between Southampton and Liverpool in Southampton, England, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
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Salah Double Sends Liverpool 8 Points Clear in Premier League as United Draws First Game with Amorim

 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah leaves the pitch after the English Premier League soccer match between Southampton and Liverpool in Southampton, England, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
Liverpool's Mohamed Salah leaves the pitch after the English Premier League soccer match between Southampton and Liverpool in Southampton, England, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)

It has been more than 30 years since a team held as big a lead as Liverpool after 12 rounds of the Premier League.

Not that Arne Slot is getting too excited about an eight-point advantage before even hitting December.

“It’s nice to have this position,” the Liverpool manager said Sunday after Mohamed Salah inspired a 3-2 come-from-behind win at Southampton, “but we are definitely not getting carried away.”

Only Manchester United's class of 1993-94 — under Alex Ferguson — has had a larger lead than Slot's Liverpool at this stage of a Premier League campaign. The title stayed at Old Trafford that season.

It's those kind of glory days that Ruben Amorim is trying to recreate after taking charge of United and the Portuguese coach could hardly have got off to a better start.

Only 81 seconds had elapsed before United marked Amorim's first game at the helm with a goal from Marcus Rashford at Ipswich.

United couldn't hold out and a 1-1 draw against a team destined to be battling against relegation underlined the scale of Amorim's task to turn around the fortunes of a fallen giant in English soccer.