Jurgen Klopp can't resist cheeky Premier League dig as he praises special Mohamed Salah attribute

Jurgen Klopp admits Mohamed Salah never wanted to be rotated at Liverpool - even for the 12.30pm kick-offs he still loathes

Jurgen Klopp couldn’t resist a cheeky dig at the Premier League fixture scheduling as he praised Mohamed Salah’s elite mentality.

Klopp reached out to Salah earlier this week after the forward announced he would be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season.

The Egyptian created history under the German, landing Premier League and Champions League titles during a glittering spell together.

And while Klopp was quick to hail Salah for the way he always wanted to play, he couldn’t resist a cheeky dig towards 12:30pm kick-offs.

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“Rotating Mo was difficult,” he said. “I’d be: ‘You cannot play three games a week’. And Mo would be: 'Yeah, I can’. ‘Okay then, you can, but all the others can’t. It is all fine’.

“You always walk on the edge in these moments; you play a player too often or not often enough, there’s extra time, long travel, and you can’t play all of that.

“If you could plan for it, it would be easy. Two hours sleep after a game and in two days time you play again. I tell you in the press conference: 'Thank you very much for 12.30pm on Saturday', and everybody thinks: 'Oh come on, f**k off'.

“But it’s the biggest problem in that moment for me and I cannot stop thinking about it. It’s not that I want to say it.

“Then I go back and say to the players: ‘12.30pm is a great time'. But I’m not convinced and they feel it. So in these moments you need players who want to play all the time.”

Klopp also believes Salah could carry on playing until the age of 40, saying: "Salah is an incredible professional. He set completely new standards for a professional football player – how hard you can work, how much you can invest in recovery and everything."

Before he added: "Now he leaves here, but I would not be surprised if he plays another six or seven years. I'm sad, but he's an all-time great without a shadow of a doubt and I'm really proud to be a part of that career.

"He knows this was the perfect club for him and he was the perfect player for us. Mo and I had big dreams, but we didn't dare to dream that big.

"I'm not sure we can appreciate it to the right extent – that will happen soon now. I wish him the best of luck because he deserves it.

"The numbers he produced and the standards he set, some of them, if not all, will stay unmatched in this modern Premier League era, definitely, because it's ridiculous to do that and to do it for one club more or less."

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