Mohamed Salah has warned Manchester City that Liverpool will “fight like champions” despite a miserable run that plunged his side’s Premier League title defence into turmoil.
Jurgen Klopp’s side are languishing 13 points behind leaders City after crashing to a 3-1 defeat at Leicester on Saturday.
Salah had given Liverpool the lead with his 17th league goal of the season, but the Reds collapsed in the closing stages.
Klopp conceded the title to City after Liverpool’s third successive defeat.
It is a remarkable decline after Liverpool romped to their first title in 30 years last term.
But, after 24 hours of painful fallout from the loss at the King Power Stadium, with Liverpool fans hanging a banner in support of the German boss on the railings outside the Kop reading ‘Jurgen Klopp YNWA’, Egypt forward Salah made a defiant statement of intent.
“It’s been a tough period for many reasons. We are champions and we will fight like champions, until the very end,” Salah wrote on Twitter.
“We will not allow this season to be defined by the recent results we’ve had. That is my promise to all of you.”
While retaining the title may now be beyond Liverpool, they are still in the Champions League.
Klopp’s team face the Bundesliga’s second-placed side Leipzig in a last-16 first-leg clash on Tuesday.
The match, which has been moved to the Puskas Arena in Hungary due to German government coronavirus regulations not allowing Liverpool to travel to the country, could be pivotal to the rest of the Reds’ campaign.
Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold hopes a different competition and scenario will provide the lift they need to get out of their current slump.
“Everyone talks about a bad spell and a dip in form and stuff, but I feel personally we’ve performed well in the last few weeks, in the last two months or six weeks or so,” he told Liverpool’s website.
“It’s just that we haven’t been getting the results and it’s a results business so there’s no excuses for that.
“But I think confidence-wise, we’re not playing badly, we’re not getting battered.
“It’s about turning those performances into results and that’s probably what we need to look at most.
“In situations like this you want the opportunity to put it right as soon as possible.
“Different competition, which always freshens it up, different mentality going into it. It’s going to be a different task for us, a Champions League night.”
