by Breaking new ground has become such an established part of Mohamed Salah’s Liverpool repertoire that sometimes it takes a new voice to remind us that his routine is, in fact, exceptional and should be celebrated as such. The scholar Thomas Frank was that voice before the international break.
“Mo Salah gets a lot of praise, but I don’t know if he gets enough praise,” the Brentford manager said. “I think now, without thinking about it, he is potentially the best player in the Premier League. In terms of goals and assists, what a level. He must be one of the best offensive players in the world. Not in the top 10, but in the top three.”
Related: Liverpool in a state of flux, but Salah remains Klopp’s invaluable game changer | Paul Hayward
The best player in the Premier League? Frank, as he acknowledged during a post-match press conference at Anfield, was thinking out loud as he analyzed the details of a still-raw 3-0 defeat, not conspiring to troll Erling Haaland and Manchester City. But for a Premier League manager not named Jürgen Klopp to put Salah on that pedestal, and presumably place him alongside Haaland, 23, and Kylian Mbappé, 24, among the best attacking players in the world at his age. 31 years old, he showed that it’s not just Liverpool fans who appreciate being in the presence of greatness.
Salah’s phenomenal consistency – in terms of goals, influence, fitness and hunger – is one of the main reasons why Liverpool can visit the Etihad Stadium with the confidence of regaining their position as the biggest threat to City’s dominance. It is the match for which “the world pays the most”, said Klopp, criticizing the decision to change the start of the match to 12.30pm on a Saturday after the international break. Haaland against Salah will be a key reason, provided the former recovers from an ankle injury suffered with Norway.
Only City’s centre-forward has scored more Premier League goals (13) than the Egyptian international’s 10 this season, with Salah topping assists four to three. Salah’s goals come from 14 “big chances” – according to Premier League criteria – while Haaland benefited from 23. In terms of “big chances created” the score is 11-3 in favor of the Liverpool player.
It is notable that Salah kept pace with Haaland while stationed on the right, while adapting to Darwin Nunez’s more explosive play following the departure of Roberto Firmino and with a completely new midfield behind him. But his goal ratio has improved this season and is at its highest level (0.83 per game) since his astonishing debut season at Anfield in 2017-18, which saw 32 goals in 36 Premier League games (0.83 per game). 88 per game) and the first of his two clean sweeps at the PFA and FWA player of the year awards.
Salah is two goals shy of Liverpool’s 200 after 321 appearances, although he already has 200 goals in English football thanks to two during a forgettable spell at Chelsea. In 117 Premier League games at Anfield he has produced a combined total of 119 goals and assists. The statistics are ridiculous. The city will also distrust them. Salah scored in all four games against Pep Guardiola’s treble last season and has 11 goals in 18 appearances against City.
Then there are the individual records that Salah seems to be setting on a weekly basis these days. Take Liverpool’s last three home games as an example. Against Toulouse he scored his 43rd goal in major European competitions for Liverpool, overtaking Thierry Henry as the most prolific goalscorer for an English club in Europe.
Three days later, against Nottingham Forest, he became the third Liverpool player to score in the first five home league games of a season, after Harry Chambers in 1922 and John Aldridge in 1987. The last time, against Brentford, he claimed the record outright, making it six with a shot that left the defeated technician purring. “A clear signature Liverpool attack,” as Frank said.
“We lose it, we counterattack, we hit Salah and it’s a goal. But it is not always a goal for everyone in that situation. “That’s just the quality of the player and the quality of Liverpool.” The signature result also extended Salah’s streak of goals or assists in Premier League matches at Anfield to 15 games, a sequence stretching back to January.
The milestones are not limited to the club level. In his next appearance after Brentford, Salah scored four goals in Egypt’s 6-0 rout of Djibouti. The feat allowed him to surpass Mohamed Aboutrika as his country’s top scorer in World Cup qualifying with 15 goals.
But numbers alone do not sum up Salah’s remarkable level. His work rate, attitude and leadership have helped underpin Liverpool’s recovery this season. On the most difficult days, when performance has not been up to par, like the Merseyside derby at Anfield last month, for example, the striker continues to emerge as a decisive influence. Alongside Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and the pillars of Klopp’s team, Salah appears motivated to atone for last season’s failure to qualify for the Champions League while also setting standards for new recruits to follow. Together they have restored Liverpool’s ruthless mentality.
During seven seasons as a Liverpool player, Salah has only missed 10 Premier League games, and two of them were limited to competing in the African Cup of Nations in 2022. Klopp will have to deal with that problem again in January, when Salah could miss four league games. even against Chelsea and Arsenal, depending on Egypt’s progress. But the striker’s fitness, as well as his form, show no signs of deterioration. “I think if we scanned it, most of the bones would be 19 or 20 years old,” the Liverpool manager recently joked. “He just stays in great shape.”
Liverpool’s decision to reject a £150m bid from Al-Ittihad for their number 11 has been vindicated in less than three months. Inevitably, the threat of Saudi Arabia making another splashy move for the planet’s highest-profile Muslim footballer remains, with Salah entering the final 12 months of his Liverpool contract next summer. But who’s to say he’ll make your head spin at the thought of playing in front of a negligible crowd in the Saudi Pro League?
Salah’s records, milestones and insatiable appetite build a compelling case for a Liverpool contract extension, even if the latter was a protracted saga that came to a successful resolution just 17 months ago. Regardless of the next step, his value is not lost on anyone at Anfield. As Klopp said: “We appreciate it and everyone will appreciate it even more after his career because then you’ll say, ‘Wow, we saw something really special.'”
