A tabloid newspaper published a photo of Jurgen Klopp supposedly “staring lovingly” at Mo Salah at Liverpool’s Doha hotel this week. As per for said publication, it was likely nonsense – a snapshot in time caught on camera and spun into a headline to bag some clicks.
But going with it for the sake of argument, who could blame Klopp if he was giving it heart eyes to the Egyptian goal-getter as he sets his sights on bringing the Club World Cup back to Anfield?
Before the game against Monterrey on Wednesday, the £35million forward had racked up an amazing 84 goals in 126 games for Liverpool since signing from Roma in the summer of 2017. And in terms of goals-to-game ratio, that meant the 27-year-old was finding the net….finding the net on average every 0.72 games for The Reds.
Purely by that mark, it makes Salah Liverpool’s most likely goalscorer of the Premier League era – no mean feat given the quality of the forwards fielded by Liverpool in that period.
Open for a surprise pic.twitter.com/OSygEC8GfT
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 17, 2019
Salah’s current ratio tops Fernando Torres (0.64), Luis Suarez (0.63), Michael Owen (0.55), Sadio Mane (0.50), Robbie Fowler (0.48), Daniel Sturridge (0.43) and even Ian Rush (0.35). It’s a remarkable return on so many levels, from the standards he has hit so consistently to the variation of goals scored.
Throw in he can no longer lean on any element of surprise – he is planned and prepped for by every oppponent, yet keeps on scoring – and he is a man truly deserving of star billing. Some will still pick away at the latest fact pinned for the public to mark his quality. Some of those players have played more games, some of those players did not enjoy the same quality of service. Truth on both points.
The idea of only referencing “the Premier League era” also certainly does Ian Rush a disservice. But let’s have it right. Salah isn’t a centre forward in the mould of Rush. And many will say he doesn’t have the lethal finishing of Owen, Fowler or Torres at their best. Suarez was off the scale at his peak for Liverpool and, like most players on the planet, Salah just can’t pull off some of things that raging ball of energy did.
Yet Salah, a player many predicted would struggle to play to his price tag when he swapped Rome for Liverpool, is outpacing them all right now. And, for the majority of games, he’s doing it from the position of a wide forward. When you look at it like that, it’s all the more incredible.
And testament to not only the man himself, who continually bounces back from supposed lean spells, but also to the coaching staff, who have coaxed him to goalscoring figures previously unprecedented in his career.
Mohamed Salah has now scored more goals for Liverpool across all competitions (83) than Luis Suárez (82).
In seven fewer games. pic.twitter.com/fh6Z8pfxdg
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) December 14, 2019
Another indicator of his class is how the players he has outperformed speak of him. After Salah defied popular perception of angles with his brilliant goal at Salzburg in the Champions League, the usually static Owen burst into life. While not the most popular figure on The Kop in 2019, no one can doubt the levels Owen reached in a Liverpool shirt at such a young age.
For starters, without him The Reds have one less FA Cup on the honours board after his 2001 heroics. Yet here he was in the BT Sport studio, eyes wide, voice racing, enthusiastically declaring Salah’s goal in Austria as a “10 per cent chance at best”. And the man they call The Egyptian King slotted it like he was playing on the local park.
It’s perhaps this trait that marks him out as among the very best. We’ve witnessed him rage against suggestions last season that he was out of form. We’ve watched this week and last him missing chances he is expected to score and scoring goals that barely register as an opportunity. On the pitch, you can see him muttering to himself, the inner chimp raging. After two sublime goals versus Watford he was still moaning about not registering a hat-trick as he left Anfield with the game long finished.
There is a fire that burns inside, but he is able to channel it. As quick as it rages out of control, it’s contained and the steely focus returns. It’s that which makes Salah special. That tunnel vision. That ability to stare down what he really wants – another goal.
Sometimes Salah isn’t appreciated enough. Sometimes his resilience isn’t respected. When that’s the case, he is never too far away from serving up a reminder. He’s done just that with recent form – even adding a glut of goals with his weaker foot to boot.
As Klopp eyes the prizes with Liverpool in prime position, who can blame him for a gushing glance at one of his prime assets? Because right now, you wouldn’t swap Mo Salah for anyone.
