Any successful football team is built upon the strength of the relationships within it. If players possess an almost telepathic anticipation of the runs and movements their colleagues are going to make, they can make a pass without thinking and before the opposition can react.
Liverpool have lost a very important cog in their machine this summer with the departure of Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich. Exactly 100 of his 120 goals for the club were assisted by others, which is more than any other player has received in the Jurgen Klopp era.
Mohamed Salah, on 97, will pass his total this season, but Mane’s absence may be more keenly felt as a converter of chances from others. The Senegalese forward was the top assist recipient for Trent Alexander-Arnold and Salah and was only one short of joint-top for Andy Robertson. As talented as Darwin Nunez is, it will take time for his relationship with his new team-mates to develop to similar levels.
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Fortunately for Liverpool, their first choice right-back also has a fabulous rapport with Salah. There was evidence of this in the Reds’ 2-0 win over Crystal Palace in Singapore, where Alexander-Arnold assisted the Egyptian for his first goal of the summer.
He has since spoken to the club’s official website about their on-field relationship, and how they combined following Jordan Henderson’s opening goal. “Then obviously the second one, me and Mo linking up on the right side,” Alexander-Arnold said. “Just kind of enjoying our football again and getting our connection back [after] a bit of time apart.”
Alexander-Arnold only set up two goals for Salah last season, at Leeds United and Chelsea, when he got four assists for Mane and six for Diogo Jota. This relative lack of goals between the pair isn’t a surprise, though, as Liverpool’s numbers 66 and 11 play on the same side of the pitch. Passes between the pair are more likely to be in the final third outside the box rather than within it.
But that isn’t to say that Trent does not find Mo in the penalty area, quite the contrary. He provided 20 box passes for Salah, more than he offered to Mane (18) and Jota (13). It wasn’t just Alexander-Arnold’s top link-up but one of the best in Europe.
Per FBRef, Trent completed 89 open play passes into the penalty area last season, the third most of any player in one of Europe’s big five leagues. He was behind only Joao Cancelo (with 95) and Lionel Messi (90) and there was very little to separate them.
Messi completed 29 such passes to Kylian Mbappe at Paris Saint-Germain, so above what Alexander-Arnold managed with Salah. Cancelo’s top relationship for passes into the box was with Raheem Sterling but their total was 19. With the latter’s move to Chelsea, Manchester City have lost a key partnership just as Liverpool have with the exit of Mane.
And while Alexander-Arnold may not assist Salah too often, he helps the latter to create goals for other Reds. The Egyptian won the Premier League’s playmaker of the season award with 13 assists in 2021/22, and added two in Europe. Alexander-Arnold made the preceding pass for four of them, more than any other player. Their quartet included goals by Mane against Manchester City and Villarreal, massive moments in massive matches.
Aside from the goals, there were a further 12 chances where Alexander-Arnold and then Salah played the final two passes, with their total of 16 making them the leading link-up for Liverpool. The identity of the next best duo for the Reds, who combined to create 11 goal scoring opportunities? Salah to Alexander-Arnold, who provided a goal for Takumi Minamino against Arsenal among their efforts.
Alexander-Arnold poke of enjoying getting his connection back with his right-sided attacking colleague, and the data shows it’s vital that he and Salah combine well in 2022/23. Assuming they do, they can help Nunez - whose second of his four goals against RB Leipzig on Thursday was created by Alexander-Arnold - to fill the sizeable goal gap Mane has left behind.
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