Klopp: Vardy has ‘Tuesdays, Wednesdays off and is sitting on the couch watching international football’

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Jurgen Klopp shrugged off criticism of the lack of goals Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino have scored recently in his own brilliant manner!

The Egyptian King has one in five, while for Bobby it’s just one in nine.

Sadio Mane, our most potent player this term, is on three in his past six.

Liverpool though have still been racking up the wins, with players from all over the field contributing to the goal tally.

Virgil van Dijk scored a brace v Brighton at the weekend, while Dejan Lovren notched the equaliser v Napoli in the Champions League.

Klopp used Premier League top scorer Jamie Vardy’s lack of European or international football in his explanation, too.

“I don’t count goals, I don’t look at these numbers. Jamie Vardy is an exceptional striker, but he has Tuesdays and Wednesdays off and is sitting on the couch watching international football so you cannot compare this,” he told the Echo.

“It’s a big, big plus for Leicester with the quality they have and all the rest. Yes, we have to score goals. I was completely fine with scoring two after set-pieces in the last game (against Brighton) with Virg (Virgil van Dijk).

“We could have scored much more in the early part of the game when we played some unbelievable football. We couldn’t keep that throughout the game, but still had big changes – the one with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for example (in the second half).

“I start being concerned when we don’t create chances anymore, so that’s the moment where you really have to think. We know we could have played better in some games, but we cannot usually – the derby is different – isolate games.”

Liverpool were criticised before for relying too much on the goals of the front-three, so it doesn’t really make sense for it now to be an issue when the rest of the side is chipping in.

Obviously, we’d like Salah to get in the goals especially, as he seems to play with more confidence and zip when he’s found the net – but for Firmino – it’s a secondary concern to creating chances for team-mates.

Mane has 12 for the season already, so we’re pretty happy with his overall contribution!

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