Gary Neville offers Liverpool title theory as Klopp looks to solve Salah problem

Gary Neville believes Liverpool "owe it" to Mohamed Salah to ensure they are still in the title hunt when he returns from the Africa Cup of Nations.

The Egyptian scored twice on New Year's Day as the Reds produced an impressive performance to see off Newcastle and open up a gap at the top of the Premier League. Salah will now jet off for the next month as he seeks to land international glory with his country.

The forward is close to becoming Liverpool's all-time top Premier League scorer but, despite all his goals, he only has one title success to his name across his six seasons. In his absence there are concerns in the final third but Neville has backed them to use Salah's absence as motivation.

He said on the Gary Neville podcast : "A lot of those players have left and they've got back to a transitional period like they were at the beginning under Klopp with Cody Gakpo, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz. They're not polished yet. They're not at the peak of their careers where you start to make precise decisions.

'"There's an electricity to them but also a frustration that in the final third the last part can go a little bit wrong. You wonder what that's going to be like without Salah but they owe it to him to get through the next month still in the title, still at the top of the league and still ahead so they can give Salah a chance to come back and have a real go at the title.

"I didn't think Liverpool would be in a title race and I still don't think they'll do it. The hesitation I have in my voice is due to those three players [Gakpo, Nunez and Diaz] but Klopp is something different as a manager."

Liverpool underwent a mass overhaul of players in the summer and, whilst an improvement was expected on last season's showing, few