Klopp on Lukaku, Mkhitaryan, Salah; unhappy with Southgate

Matt Stead

Jurgen Klopp discussed Manchester United’s biggest threats ahead of Liverpool’s game with them on Saturday.

The Reds face United in poor form, having won only one game of their last seven.

Klopp knows that in Romelu Lukaku and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, United pose a considerable attacking threat.

“Lukaku was already a world class striker at Everton,” he said. “He enjoys life in this team a lot. He’s improved since he joined Manchester.

“Being around other fantastic players at United helps him. He helps the team a lot. He is a real goal-getter.”

On Mkhitaryan, he added: “He was always a fantastic player. Perfect attitude, mentality. He wanted to do everything right in every moment of his life. Sometimes in football you need to be a little bit different.

“We all know that the best players in the world have a few issues. That’s okay. I’m older than a lot of players. I have made mistakes that they don’t have to make. I can tell them.”

Klopp was made to worry over the international break, with a number of his players heading off the feature for their countries.

Sadio Mane of Senegal was the only casualty, while Mohamed Salah guided Egypt to the World Cup with two goals in a 2-1 win over Congo, including a last-minute winning penalty.

“I would say at the moment he’s our number one penalty taker,” Klopp said. “That pressure was really big. He did really well.”

But Klopp admitted he was “not happy” to see captain Jordan Henderson play on an artificial surface for England against Lithuania.

“England played a friendly game on an artificial surface,” he added. “I was not happy that [Jordan] Henderson was on the artificial pitch with all the problems he had. I thought it made no sense.

“No manager asks me how I would line-up. We watch, we wait and we take what we get.”