We’re still in January, and our right-winger has already registered 16 goals and ten assists in the Champions League and the Premier League this season.
He has more goals than Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino – and the same number of assists as Trent Alexander-Arnold – making him our most productive player overall – for the third season running.
In Mo Salah’s first season, he plundered a quite absurd 44 goals in all competitions, following that up with 27 the next – winning the Premier League Golden Boot on both occasions
So, we’re not quite sure why there should be a need for this unashamed Salah propaganda when all Liverpool fans should be doing it for us…
Weirdly, it feels like it’s no longer cool to rate Liverpool’s no.11.
Yet again, despite scoring from the spot and assisting a goal in sumptuous style last night, an odd group of fans, some Liverpool, some not; visible mainly online but occasionally in pubs and offices, brandish the Egyptian King ‘overrated’ – unaware of the irony in that if everyone always says that – it no longer makes any sense.
It feels to us like Salah is a victim of his mind-boggling debut campaign, which was the greatest individual season in a generation of English football.
The only ones that come close is Luis Suarez in 2013/14 or Thierry Henry’s 2002/03 in which he broke the 20 mark for both goals and assists.
In 2017/18, Salah scored nearly every game. He missed chances, like he misses chances now – but they were largely forgotten because he was firstly an exciting new signing taking the PL by storm, but secondly because he was the team’s lynchpin and someone whose mistakes were forgiven as quickly as his positive contributions praised.
Roberto Firmino hit 27 goals this season, and Sadio Mane plundered 20 – but they were both way behind Salah in terms of importance to the fans and the team.
So much so, when Salah limped off in the Champions League Final v Real Madrid, supporter belief evaporated.
The difference between then and now is, we have other effective, consistent contributors. None as amazing as Salah was in 2017/18 – bar Virgil van Dijk if you were to make a defensive comparison, maybe – but still a number of obvious stars.
Trent is incredible week in, week out. Any football pundit will tell you Mane is our best player (although the numbers still point to Mo). Jordan Henderson is a candidate for Player of the Year. Firmino can go months without scoring and yet his name is bellowed out regardless. Gini Wijnaldum is even lauded now as a dictator and someone whose off-the-ball work helps others.
Which it does. But so does Mo’s…
Divock Origi has become a Liverpool legend for his goal in the Champions League Final victory over Spurs. Salah scored in that game too.
As Simon Brundish points out, Salah’s only real dip in form since his arrival came this season on the back of the injury he played through.
Form of the Front 3 over last 3 seasons pic.twitter.com/pMhuO1sluP
— SimonBrundish (@SimonBrundish) January 30, 2020
In Salah’s last 30 Premier League games, Liverpool have racked up 30 wins and 90 points. So whether he’s scoring enough goals (his numbers are still absurdly high for a winger), his overall importance to Jurgen Klopp’s side simply cannot be argued.
Even when he has one of those games where he misses opportunities, fans should shout about his movement from the rooftops. When he fumbles a pass, we should talk about his pressing that helped win the ball in the first place. When he stands over a freekick alongside Trent, we should realise how much his team-mates must rate him to let him have one over the right-back in the first place.
And when Liverpool win the Premier League title, we should realise that without Salah, it wouldn’t be possible.