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Liverpool sign Mohamed Salah

The Chelsea reject, found himself in Italy and joins Klopps reds title challengers.

AS Roma v Genoa CFC - Serie A
A new red
Photo by Paolo Bruno/Getty Images

Liverpool have completed a club record £39m deal for for the former flying Chelsea wide man joins from Roma. The italian side turned down a few Liverpool bids before Klopp got his man.

The 24 year old Egypt international had a great 2016/17 in Serie A. 29 appearances saw him score 15 goals and provided 11 assists.

Previously Salah found it tough at Chelsea , playing only 13 Premier League games before he was loaned to Fiorentina and eventually sold to Roma last summer. Salah himself explained why his previous time in the EPL didn't work out the way he would have hoped

"It was one of the key moments of my life and my career in terms of learning. I was young, and suddenly I was alongside one of the best tacticians in the world [Mourinho], with exceptional players. I didn't play much, it's true, and I was not necessarily happy. I wanted to show what I was capable of. I was sad not to be able to do that. In spite of everything, I had a very good relationship with coach Mourinho. In every aspect, I only retain the positive, and that was the case at Chelsea. I always gave everything, but regardless of what I did in training, I was not in the starting lineup. I had to respect the coach's choices. He had some 20 players and had to pick 11, that's how it is."

Salah’s who continues to need to work on the defensive side of his game does look like the type of attacking player Jurgen Klopp would work well with. Full of pace and aggressive attacking thoughts he may be able to offer on the left hand side what Sadio Mane does on the right.

On the counter attack Liverpool were devastating at time last season, but when Mane was missing they badly missed his pace and movement. Salah will offer the side more depth and working alongside Mane the reds may be even more of a handful.

Fantasy implications: Clearly his statistics from last season will make him a very tempting option into the Liverpool attack. Likely to be cheaper than any of Coutinho, Mane or Firmino and I think more suited to a Klopp system of play than that demanded by Jose.

The concern is with the options open to Klopp and the rotation for europe to consider, can we believe Salah can be relied upon to play game in game out. A bigger worry could be the effect Salah playing could have in Coutinho as he may very well take the left hand role normally held by Liverpools star player. While Salah is nowhere near the same level of player the Brazilian is, we did see Klopp adjust Coutinho into a deeper central midfield role late last season, a role he impressed in against West Ham in particular. Coutinho was more involved in this position and it may turn out to be his long term position for the club. While this is great for Liverpool and he did have a monster game in that West Ham clash, it’s an obvious worry for a fantasy manager to see any attacking player pushed deeper on the pitch.

Poll

Will Salah make your matchday squad?

This poll is closed

  • 23%
    Nope its all about the Mane
    (4 votes)
  • 23%
    Nope Coutinho all the way
    (4 votes)
  • 52%
    Yes if the price is 8m or less
    (9 votes)
17 votes total Vote Now

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