Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp bid a reluctant farewell to star forward Mohamed Salah as the Egyptian left to join up with his national team ahead of the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
Salah is away with Egypt for the tournament in Ivory Coast while Japan captain Wataru Endo will be involved at the Asian Cup in Qatar, with both players expected to go deep in the respective competitions.
That could mean they will not be back until the second week in February but Klopp said he sent them on their way this week without wishing them too much success.
Speaking ahead of Liverpool’s FA Cup match against Arsenal, Klopp admitted he was less than enthusiastic about losing Salah mid-way through the season to AFCON international duty.
“I said if I wish you good luck it would be a lie,” Klopp said bluntly about Salah’s departure.
“From a personal point of view, I would be happy if they go out in the group stage but that’s probably not possible. They can go on and win it.”
With Salah now gone for up to a month should Egypt progress deep into the AFCON knockout stages, Klopp is left to ponder how to replace the scoring and creativity of Liverpool’s top attacker.
“So it was ‘Good luck and come back healthy’. We have to deal with it and we will deal with it. I am pretty positive that we will find a way,” Klopp added, putting on a brave face.
Salah will be a key player for Egypt as they look to win their 8th AFCON title.
Liverpool will surely miss their talisman during this crucial stretch of the season across multiple competitions.
But Klopp seems ready to embrace the challenge, even if he wishes Salah could have stayed, expressing confident Liverpool can fill the hole left by Salah.
“I think we played against West Ham (in last month’s League Cup quarter-final) without Mo on that side and Harvey Elliott played there,” he said.
“We have different offensive options who can all play that wing in a different way. Nobody else can play like Mo, it is not possible — we just have to use the boys with their skills.
“Do we want to play without Mo? No. In the past we didn’t have to do it often but we always found a way.
“But we play Arsenal and you can lose to Arsenal with Mo Salah so it’s possible to lose to them without him.”
Klopp said he was braced for a challenging January, even though there are fewer Premier League games due to a mid-season player break.
Liverpool’s game at the Emirates comes just two weeks after the title-chasing sides drew 1-1 at Anfield in the Premier League and will be followed by the first leg of their League Cup semi-final against Fulham on Wednesday.
“Some teams obviously don’t play that often in January,” he said. “We don’t have that, we have now with the semi-final, we have a proper rhythm.
“I think a re-match against Arsenal would really not be helpful, that’s how it is, because it just doesn’t fit in, would kill the winter break, stuff like this.”
