Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian King. Premier League Winner and 2x Golden Boot Winner, Champions League Winner, PFA Premier League Player of the Year + more. 228 Games Played, 147 Goals, 56 Assists. The best forward to play for Liverpool in the Premier League as voted by over 17,000 fans.
Let’s talk about him.
Mo’s Magical Introduction
Signed on the 22nd June 2017 for a reported £36.5m from Roma after lengthy and frustrating negotiations, he proved to be an instant success. Initially seen to be a pacey back up to our other top class pacey African winger Sadio Mane, Salah showed instant impact with his movement and pace from his debut goal against Watford to his full pitch sprint and finish against Arsenal. Despite questionable finishing at times early on, Salah was lighting up the Premier League quickly. He hit 20 league goals in 25 games, the fastest Liverpool player to achieve this goal, ousting fan favourites like Fernando Torres and Daniel Sturridge as well broke a 22 year record of most goals in a 38 game season with him scoring 32.
His staggering 17/18 season didn’t just stop with a glut of Premier League records, it continued and even escalated in the Champions League. A new signing who comes into European Royalty finding its way back to the peak with their first European Cup outing in nine years. A new signing who absolutely smashes it. Five goals in the group stages and seven in the knockouts including; a keepy up session away in Portugal, goals both home and away against soon to be Premier League rivals Manchester City and a brace against his former club Roma (he got 2 goals and 2 assists in that first semi final leg which only 1 other player has achieved in a Champions League semi final being our very own Bobby Firmino).
In a season that was a Ramos injury in Kyiv short of being worthy of a potential Ballon D’or, he broke countless records that would take far too much room to list. He got 44 goals and 16 assists, the PFA Premier League Player of the Year and the Premier League Golden Boot. This should’ve been the peak of his career yet we haven’t even scratched the surface.
The Trophy Haul
After his remarkable introduction to the Premier League and heartbreak from Kyiv, he dusted himself down and went again. In 2018/19 he scored 27 goals in 52 games becoming the fastest player to score 50 goals for Liverpool (62 games). He continued to score goals of significance that defined Klopp’s era such as his group stage clinching winner against Napoli or his piledriver against Chelsea at Anfield. Although Mo Salah has had moments that could’ve shaped his Liverpool career in a different light being the aforementioned Kiev injury or the Camp Nou miss; it turns out that him scoring a Champions League final penalty in the 3rd minute against Tottenham in Madrid and winning the trophy will be the legacy that he will leave behind.
If he wasn’t in the top 5 Liverpool Premier League players bracket, then he would’ve been after 2019/20. Goals against Tottenham, Man City, Arsenal and Watford winning points on such consistent regularity that we wondered why no one else has been able to do this before him. And then against our Mancuian enemies he gets his perfect moment, shown in photos that will be used in generations beyond our lifetimes. Shirt off, muscles out and an Alisson hug. A moment of lifetime that should be shown in the Louvre for all to see. Despite COVID hampering the final celebrations, we were still champions of England with Salah being our top goalscorer along the way. What else did he have to prove?
Best in the world?
2020/21 is a season to forget for most with injuries galore, no crowds and the worst home run in Liverpool’s modern history yet despite all the uncertainty in football, one constant remained and that was our Egyptian King scoring 31 goals in 51 games. Goals against Leeds, Everton, West Ham, Newcastle, West Brom and Manchester United being crucial towards our unfathomable 3rd place finish. He dragged us back into the European Cup for another season. He got to feel like Steven Gerrard for a season.
Now in the current moment when writing this article: he has scored 22 goals in 25 games, he has single handedly run through Man City and Watford in successive matches and he has equalled Vardy’s record of 15 consective league games with a goal contribution. Mohamed Salah is playing at a level now where it’s socially acceptable to say that he is the best player in world football and that is being done at Liverpool. Different forms of criticism have been levelled at Salah throughout his Liverpool career such as; “He’s a one season wonder”, “He’s too selfish”, “We should sell him for more money”, “He’s not good at finishing” etc. Yet these criticisms are proven wrong every single time. A trait that the best in world football should have in abundance.
His Legacy
Throughout his career, I would have debates comparing Salah with Torres and Suarez on who really is the best attacker to play for Liverpool and more often than not, people would favour the nostalgia of players past choosing Torres for the suave finishing or Suarez for the unpredictability, ruthlessness and sheer talent of the man. While those opinions aren’t unreasonable, Salah: has scored more goals and won more trophies than both of them; has incredible movement and pace akin to Torres; has scored goals to a similar if not higher level than Suarez; has had more clutch moments for Liverpool than those two combined; and has been available for selection during his whole tenure so can be relied on on a weekly basis.
Mo Salah is the face of the Jurgen Klopp era, he has fought with every fibre of his being to achieve his dreams, he has given the fanbase a countless number of memories that will be told to future generations and he has loved every minute of it.
Will he ever be able to take the Number 1 spot? It would probably take a miracle for him to achieve this goal. But with it being Mohamed Salah, a miracle doesn’t feel unrealistic in the slightest.
Mohamed Salah, Liverpool’s best Premier League attacker.
