Jurgen Klopp has said that one Liverpool player will be considered ‘an all-time great’ at the club by the end of their career and still has a lot more to achieve in red.
Mo Salah took his goal tally for the season to 30 with the winner from the penalty spot in last week’s win against Brentford, scoring for the 100th time at Anfield and equalling Steven Gerrard’s haul of 186 goals for the Reds. He also became the first player in the club’s history to score in nine successive home matches (Evening Standard).
Speaking in Friday morning’s pre-match press conference ahead of the trip to Leicester City on Monday, the manager was asked if the Egyptian’s feats would be somewhat overlooked in comparison to the 51 goals that Erling Haaland has racked up for Manchester City.
Klopp duly replied in relation to the 30-year-old (as per Liverpool Echo): “No, not from us or all the Liverpool supporters. He will be an all-time great when he finishes his career. [There’s] still a good few years in his legs and body. The numbers will still improve.”
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Some may be tempted to put Haaland’s numbers and Salah’s side by side to try and argue the case for one being better than the other, but the truth is that both are phenomenal forwards whose goal records have been remarkably consistent for several seasons.
It says plenty about how pivotal the Egyptian has been at Anfield that, in his six campaigns on Merseyside, he’s never scored fewer than 19 goals in the Premier League or 23 in all competitions (Transfermarkt).
Looking at this season, he scored in six successive Champions League games, while without his goals in the top flight, Liverpool would be 15 points worse off (Transfermarkt). Subtract that figure and the Reds would be left 10th in the table.
Klopp is right to state that, still just 30, Salah could continue to rack up big numbers for another few years. Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Robert Lewandowski and Zlatan Ibrahimovic have all proven well capable of hitting mammoth goal tallies well into their 30s.
If the Egyptian continues his rate of 23 or more goals in a single campaign for even four more years, he’d almost certainly surpass Roger Hunt’s tally of 285 for the club, which would place him second in the all-time scoring list (lfchistory.net).
If that’s not enough of a qualification for him to be deemed an undisputed LFC legend, then what is? Haaland is exceptional, but we wouldn’t swap Mo Salah for anyone in world football.