Jurgen Klopp says Salah's frustration at substitution is a 'normal issue'

Jurgen Klopp says Mohamed Salah's frustration at being substituted during Liverpool's Premier League defeat to Chelsea on Thursday is a "normal issue" as he praised the forward's outstanding goal record this season.

Salah, who has scored a league-high 17 goals this season, was visibly unhappy, shaking his head, after being replaced 62 minutes into the Reds' fifth consecutive defeat at Anfield.

Liverpool manager Klopp revealed after the match he had made the substitution because the Egypt international was "feeling the intensity".

Just after the substitution, Salah's agent Remy Abbas Issa posted a cryptic response to the change, tweeting out just a single full stop.

When Klopp was asked what he needed to do to ensure there is no lasting problem, he replied: "Talking. That's how it always is. I am not even sure if this situation is a reason for a 'proper talk' about it?

"We were 1-0 down, that makes no player happy, you go off and you can react in different ways because you are not happy about the general game.

"On top of that you get subbed [as] a striker and you think you should stay on the pitch. That is all completely clear and a normal issue. It's just normal life."

Klopp also dismissed the notion there was any lingering issue after Salah expressed in December his disappointment at being overlooked as captain for Liverpool's Champions League group-stage match against Midtjylland.

The German, whose side host Fulham on Sunday, said. "That is so long ago. It was absolutely nothing. Mo is in a good mood. He has scored goals after that. These things are not our problem."

Liverpool are now four points adrift of the top four in seventh, three points behind neighbours Everton, who are fifth and have a game in hand on their Merseyside rivals.

Klopp says the champions, who have now gone more than 10 hours without a goal in open play at Anfield, need widespread improvement if they are to overcome their alarming drop in form since the new year.

Asked whether the return of Diogo Jota could help lead the front three of Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino to rediscover their levels, Klopp replied: "We all have to improve, definitely.

"[When] you only lose games when you have more potential than the results show, then it is all about the performance. That is where we all have to improve.

"Mo still has a great scoring record. I am sure everyone knows and he knows himself that he could have scored more goals. But Mo's scoring record is not our problem. In general, we have to improve - 100 per cent."

Klopp believes Salah, who has scored more than 20 goals in all competitions in the past four seasons since his arrival from Roma in 2017, is not fazed by the expectations on his shoulders as Liverpool's most prolific goalscorer.

"I don't think for him that is pressure," Klopp said. "I think he enjoys that. Mo's goalscoring rate is absolutely outstanding and especially when you look at the consistency.

"We make these decisions in the moment and not with any thought behind. The problem is you have to explain it the day after the game.

"We all know we came together to the top and we came together to the point here and we will sort it together.

"I can't not change a player because it creates a story afterwards. I don't even think about these things in the moment.

"You do it because in the moment you think it is right and you are allowed to judge it afterwards if it was right."