Jurgen Klopp has hailed Liverpool striker Mo Salah as “outstanding” and “world class”.
Liverpool recovered from the shortest recorded crisis in football history with a 2-1 win over Bournemouth on Saturday.
Callum Wilson opened the scoring for the visitors at Anfield before Salah’s wonderful equaliser was complemented by Sadio Mane’s clever finish.
Salah’s goal lifted him to joint-third in the Premier League scorer stakes, and meant that he was the first Liverpool player to score 20 goals in more in three consecutive seasons since Michael Owen in 2003.
Klopp suggested that such a record wasn’t necessarily to solidify his status as an elite goalscorer.
“I don’t think he needed that goal to do that, but it helps obviously that people [will] remember you,” he told Liverpool’s official website.
“Incredibly important goal, a super performance – a really, really good game of Mo.”
Salah’s performances have often been overlooked, with the Egpytian seeking to become only the second player after Thierry Henry to win three successive Premier League Golden Boots.
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But his importance is not underestimated by Klopp, who has praised a player on the brink of history.
“He is an outstanding striker, a world-class striker. It’s really nice, I’m really happy for him that he reached that mark and I think Sadio has the chance to do similar stuff. That would be really cool.
“We need the boys because with all the good stuff you can do on the pitch, in the end you need somebody to finish it off and very often, thank God, it was Mo.”