Daniel Edwards | Do we appreciate Mohamed Salah enough?

MOHAMED Salah is essentially the perfect footballing superstar. He scores and assists at an incredible rate, never appears to have a single falling out with a teammate or manager, and is never linked with a move away. Well, until now.

Liverpool reportedly rejected a £150m bid from Saudi Pro League club All-Ittihad on England’s transfer deadline day last week, after rumours of the club’s interest had been brewing throughout the summer. Liverpool obviously said no, but there was debate in some quarters as to whether that was a wise decision given how substantial a fee that represents for a 31-year-old.

Salah, who shoulders the majority of Liverpool’s hopes for Champions League qualification this season, was once again quick to remind the footballing world of his pricelessness with an unassuming but nonetheless brilliant performance in the Reds’ 3-0 curtailing of fellow European hopefuls Aston Villa at the weekend.

That so many believed Liverpool would be silly not to accept such a large fee for a player on the wrong side of 30 hints at an issue that Liverpool fans have pondered themselves over recent seasons – do we, the non-Merseyside contingent, appreciate Mohamed Salah enough?

Salah scored Liverpool’s third goal against Villa on Sunday to officially put the game to bed, and in doing so either scored or assisted for the 10^th consecutive Premier League game – and without much fanfare.

When considering the last player to have had a streak of this length, some obvious names come to mind – Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, maybe Bruno Fernandes? No, it was Salah himself, contributing a goal or assist in 15 straight league matches for Liverpool between August and December in 2021.

10+ – Mohamed Salah is the first player to score or assist in 10 consecutive appearances in the Premier League since Mohamed Salah between August-December 2021 (15 games in a row). Priceless. pic.twitter.com/tjxcHWbGDC

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 3, 2023

This is only the 10^th time in Premier League history that a player has gone on such a run, with Salah now accounting for 20% of those instances. And yet, many probably would have told you that he isn’t in particularly good form at the moment.

So just how highly should we be rating Salah? Do you think he’s one of the ten best players in Premier League history? Would he feature in an all-time Premier League XI? Is he the best player in the Premier League right now? If your answer to any of those questions is no, that’s fair enough, but there’s enough statistical evidence to suggest it should be a yes in each instance.

Looking at his Premier League career in totality, and this is including his early years at Chelsea before heading to Italy, Salah has scored or assisted a goal every 94 minutes on average. When comparing against those to have played at least 50 games in the competition, only two players have a better record – Thierry Henry and Sergio Agüero, both of whom were directly involved in a goal every 86 minutes. The three of them are the only players to feature in the sub-100 club.

Just last season he averaged a goal or assist every 106 minutes, which wasn’t enough for his fellow professionals to vote him into the PFA Team of the Year. He ranked third for combined goals and assists, with first (Haaland), second (Kane), and fourth (Saka) all making the PFA team.

How does he compare against the rest of the league since he joined Liverpool in 2017? He’s way ahead, involved in 30 more goals than the next closest player, Harry Kane, who is himself way ahead of third.

Salah is Liverpool’s all-time top scorer in the Premier League with 139 goals, and he’s the top scoring player in Champions League history for English clubs with 41 goals. Do we appreciate him enough? We probably won’t until he’s gone.