Neil Humphreys: Salah fits perfectly into Klopp's gegenpressing game plan

Mohamed Salah may walk like an Egyptian, but he runs like a Red, a Juergen Klopp Red.

He's a speed demon of the gegenpressing kind.

This is a signing that should send shivers down inflexible spines in the English Premier League because Salah is a sign of Liverpool's flexibility.

The Reds' 39-million-euro (S$60.5m) record signing from AS Roma, including add-ons, is the clearest indication yet that Klopp intends to make his counter-pressing ambition a weekly reality.

In fact, Salah not only underlines Liverpool's potential, but also inadvertently highlights British ignorance. More than one British media report and a number of Reds forums have focused on his position.

He's a right winger, apparently. That's Sadio Mane's supposed sphere of influence.

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Two into one doesn't go, so Klopp has signed a bench warmer. Only he hasn't.

He's signed another piece in a jigsaw without fixed positions. Formations are less important than fluidity.

Klopp expects Liverpool to run across Anfield like scattered marbles across a tiled floor.

The German began last season in such fashion, but his idealism was eventually superseded by harsh reality. He didn't have enough players.

His scattered marbles turned into bowling pins; stiff, static and occasionally wobbly.

Salah can change that. The 25-year-old is an electrifying right winger with a balletic left foot. He cuts inside or heads for the byeline. Like Mane, he goes both ways.

Klopp now has two fast, enterprising and entirely unpredictable wingmen. They are capable of swopping flanks, dancing along the white paint or drifting towards the box.

Klopp didn't sign a winger.

He signed a chameleon that shares his addiction to speed.

At Fiorentina and Roma, Salah played on both flanks and through the middle.

He scored 29 league goals in his last two seasons. In the previous campaign, he also laid on 13 goals in 31 Serie A games.

He finished second to Napoli's Marek Hamsik in the number of Serie A chances created from open play, chalking up 69 to Hamsik's 76.

Salah defies lazy attempts to categorise his position or define his strengths, which is a slight problem in a country that loves to pigeonhole.

At Chelsea, he was a winger; no more, no less.

He played just 19 games across the best part of two years before being sold to Roma for a derisory 15m euros, just another rising talent to be culled at Stamford Bridge.

But dismissing Salah as a conventional winger is naive at best.

Klopp salivates over his speed, which is hardly surprising considering Liverpool's transitional play depends on a quick getaway.

But Salah is not just a pretty boy with pace. He's a left-footed, right-sided winger, equally adept on either flank.

He scores, assists, maintains possession and works tirelessly from first minute to last.

The idea that Klopp cannot accommodate the Egyptian into his existing line-up is absurd.

A front three of Salah on the right, Roberto Firmino in the middle and Mane on the other side accommodates their finest qualities.

Behind them, Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana get the roving roles, linking the lines, while Jordan Henderson plays seamstress. He knits Klopp's technicolour template and holds it together.

Suddenly, Liverpool's front six are a match for their contemporaries, particularly against opponents that cower behind the steering wheels of parked buses.

Life on the road will be tougher, which is where Daniel Sturridge (or his eventual replacement) might be introduced, but it won't be the other way round.

Salah supports Klopp's belief in overlapping, position-swopping and counter-attacking at a relentless speed. Sturridge doesn't.

The German wants his Reds to confuse and confound, spreading across the pitch like those scattered marbles. Klopp certainly hasn't lost his marbles. He's gained one in Salah.

All he needs to do now is fix his defence and Liverpool will be a genuine force to be reckoned with.