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Mohamed Salah first left English football as a kid but has returned a man believes Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp as he backed his Egyptian ace to keep on firing for the Reds.

Klopp's predecessor Brendan Rodgers first tried to lure Salah to Anfield in January 2014 but the winger chose to join Premier League rivals Chelsea instead.

Failing to impress at Stamford Bridge, the winger was subsequently loaned out to Fiorentina and Roma before making a permanent switch to the latter.

After impressing in Serie A, Salah has been a revelation with Liverpool so far and became the first player to reach double figures in the Premier League scoring charts this season.

Rather than take full credit for one of his most successful Reds signings to date, Klopp admits that his scouting network badgered him to give Salah a second chance in England but it was after meeting the player in the flesh that convinced him the target was now ready to meet the physical challenge of the game in this country.

He said: “I met him of course at one point and he looked more ready (at this point Klopp makes hand gestures to suggest a more robust frame).

“If you watch him only on television he looks quite skinny, I said before the scouting department did a fantastic job around him. They didn't get out of our ears.

“It was 100 per cent, he is ready, he is ready. At one point, we were all sure he was ready. And that's how it looks now.”

(Image: John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Salah – who has netted 19 times in 24 games in all competitions for Liverpool so far – bagged just two goals in 19 outings for Chelsea and in hindsight Klopp believes that the move at London came too soon for him to flourish, especially in front of goal.

He said: “Mo was a kid. We all need confidence. We all need this kind of help from outside, especially as a young player in a foreign, very strong, very demanding league.

“At Chelsea, there is nobody to blame, they had a fantastic team. If we would have played him only five times this season, and said 'Ok you need to improve you are not used to our system', then he could not perform like this.

“Sometimes it takes a little bit of time that a player has a situation where everybody is helping him, and leave you on the pitch even if you are not performing at your best, because you think he will maybe score one more.

“It takes time for the players to get this. He had this time and he made a lot of brave decisions.

“Going from Basel to Chelsea is a brave decision, of course for a player from Egypt playing in Switzerland it is kind of a dream going to a really big club in England.

“Then you realise “OK, it is not that” but that didn't make him think he wasn't good enough. He wanted to prove it.

“And so he went to Italy, and he proved everything. And that is another difficult league for a striker.

“They play different football but it is difficult for a striker especially, and he did well. And so we are really happy we could convince him to come here.”

(Image: Liverpool FC)

Salah has played more minutes than any other outfield player at Liverpool so far this season but despite some extensive squad rotation of late, Klopp dismisses suggestions that he needs to give his prize asset a rest.

He said: “He had time out already. In the last international break he did not play for Egypt, he didn’t start at Stoke, we take him off as soon as possible. That’s how it is.

“I am not sure he played a lot more minutes than other players in our team, but it is true he starts often. It's because he is in a very very good moment and it is difficult to think about leaving him out.

“He is always a natural fit player. We talk a lot to the medical department and it is really rare that any issues with him.

“You don’t hear that’s he had a problem here or a problem there, that’s a big thing.

“When you hear the name of a player twice from the medical department it is pretty clear he is not in the squad or on the bench.

“That’s how it works these times. We and he have been lucky so far that there is nothing around him.”

At 25, Salah is now expected to be approaching his prime years and Klopp believes that he now has a strong base of players within this age bracket.

Philippe Coutinho, Sadio Mane and Alberto Moreno are all the same age; Roberto Firmino, Joel Matip and Nathaniel Clyne are 26 while Jordan Henderson and Gini Wijnaldum are 27.

Asked if the Egyptian was pick of the bunch so far this season, Klopp said: “Yes, probably. He's done fantastic.

“He's scored, he's been involved. He misses chances still. It isn't as if he has a 100 per cent quota (strike rate).

“It's really good. It is like this, all the other players as well, they can improve and that is a good thing.

“The age group of the team is really good for development still. A few of them look more mature, like adults on the pitch and in a really good way, but they are still young.

“Obviously for a club like Liverpool, it is quite difficult to fulfil all the expectations all the time.”