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Jurgen Klopp has saluted Mohamed Salah for surpassing all expectations during a highly impressive start to his Liverpool career.

The Egyptian winger is the Reds’ top scorer so far this term with five goals in eight appearances since his club record move from Roma for an initial fee of £36.9million.

Salah failed to establish himself in the Premier League after signing for Chelsea three-and-a-half years ago but on his return to England’s top-flight he has proved that he’s a very different proposition.

“Mo has played better than anyone could have imagined,” Klopp said.

“He’s a very good player, one we were convinced about. That’s why we did it. You could see in the first game at Watford, it was quite difficult for him at the beginning. It was really physical and maybe a few people had doubts and thought it would be difficult for him.

“But now he’s much more stable. When he was at Chelsea, he was only a kid there. Now he’s much more mature - his style of play and also physically - everything is better.

“I’m not surprised but you should not take things like this for granted as sometimes new players need time.”

(Image: Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

The 25-year-old, who was rested for the midweek League Cup defeat to Leicester City, will be recalled to the right side of Klopp’s attack when they face the Foxes once again in the Premier League on Saturday.

In the continued absence of fellow winger Sadio Mane, who completes his three-match ban, Liverpool will once again look to Salah to lead the charge as they bid to end a four-game winless run.

Klopp believes Salah has benefited from the fact that his move to Anfield was thrashed out in June, enabling him to have plenty of time to adjust to Liverpool’s style of play before the campaign got underway.

“He had a whole pre-season which changed everything so it’s not settling in in a minute, which people now probably expect from Ox (Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain),” Klopp said.

“Mo had a pre-season, good sessions, bad sessions, good games, less good games, so it’s all good.”

(Image: Martin Rickett/PA Wire)

Considering how fees escalated this summer, the money Liverpool shelled out for Salah looks increasingly like a shrewd investment.

“What was it, £38million? I can never say a fee like this was cheap or whatever,” Klopp said. “But he has done well and hopefully he can stay like this.”

Klopp has lost all three of his previous visits to the King Power Stadium during his Liverpool reign but the boss is confident that miserable sequence will be ended on Saturday evening.

As well as Salah, the Reds’ firepower will be boosted by the expected return of Roberto Firmino and Daniel Sturridge to his starting line up.

“The longer you lose somewhere the more likely it is that you will win there at some point,” Klopp added.

“It’s about performing. I don’t believe in bad places to go. If you think too much about it, it can be like that.

“Dortmund won at Hamburg on Wednesday. When I was there we never won there one time and after my time they had a bad record. Obviously now it’s changed. That’s how it is. Things can always change. I don’t believe in things like this.”