Liverpool record signing Mo Salah was Jurgen Klopp’s 4th choice

Mohamed Salah was only fourth choice on Liverpool’s transfer target list, according to The Times.

Jurgen Klopp identified that he wanted a winger to add to his squad and the Reds signed Salah for £36.7million from Roma.

However, the former Chelsea man was not Klopp’s first choice and in fact he was well down the list with the Times’ Liverpool man Paul Joyce claiming Christian Pulisic, Julian Draxler and Julian Brandt were all wanted ahead of Salah.

The Reds were apparently eyeing Salah during his time at Basel, but he signed for Chelsea, which proved to be an ill-fated spell.

Joyce wrote: “Liverpool scouted about 15 wide players between missing out on Salah and signing him.

“Klopp has conceded that it was Dave Fallows, head of scouting and recruitment, Barry Hunter, the chief scout, and Michael Edwards, the sporting director, whose background checks extended to spying missions at training camps as well as matches, who constantly pushed his case.”

And the gamble is paying off with Salah now on 14 goals from 18 games.

Ahead of tonight’s Champions League game with Sevilla Klopp has refused to say if the form of Salah had surprised him since the Egyptian’s arrival at Liverpool.

Asked whether the club-record summer signing had exceeded expectations, Klopp said: “He has reached them at least, that’s clear.

“I like Mo and his goals but we don’t have to talk about that as it’s in the past. I’m more interested in his statistics tomorrow night.

“It was not luck that he scored, he gets fantastic goals. He could build confidence off this.”