Jurgen Klopp is relaxed about Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane’s tribulations in front of goal.
Salah missed a penalty in Liverpool’s defeat at Leicester City on Tuesday while Mane has failed to score on his last nine outings in all competitions.
Both players will break off from duty with Klopp’s side following Sunday’s clash with Chelsea as they prepare to head off to the African Cup of Nations.
But the Reds’ manager, who will miss the Stamford Bridge showdown after a positive Covid test, remains calm about the pair’s moments of misfiring.
“Sadio has no problem with confidence,” insisted Klopp.
“But of course the momentum of finishing wise is not there in the moment, you can see that. Otherwise, Sadio plays pretty well.
“Actually a funny story: this morning, one of our analysts knocks on my door and asked if I had two minutes.
“[He said] ‘I made a video to show Sadio how much he contributes to our game, how good he is in these moments, in situations’.
“Obviously the intention was to show that he should not be too worried that the finishing in the moment is not there.
“But he is still an incredibly important player for us. That’s the view we have on him.
“Pretty much all strikers had to go through these kind of things. It happened to Sadio before. He came out of that, he scored for us some incredibly important goals.
“I’m really positive that he has a good chance to score one on Sunday. After that he’s then away for a few weeks and then he’s coming back and we can talk about all the things.
“For this game now, it’s all fine. You have to take these kind of things from time to time and then after that, it will be good again.”
He added: “We don’t have a lot of experience with Mo dealing with ‘crisis’ or whatever, because he didn’t have to.
“Missing a penalty is tough, espeically when you have the rebound as well and it goes on the crossbar. Of course that’s unlucky, no doubt.
“None of us have succeeeded in all difficult situations. That’s how it is.
I’m not sure but Kobe Bryant, I think, is the one player with the most missed situations in NBA history and was one of the greatest players ever.
“You have to try it, you have to come in these situations then you can fail. If you fail there no problem, go again and everything will be fine.
“That’s pretty much the mindset Mo is in, and Sadio by the way.”