Top of the Premier League scoring charts this season with 20 goals from 27 appearances, Mohamed Salah is slowly closing in on another Golden Boot. The Liverpool forward is currently seven goals clear of team-mate Diogo Jota and Son Heung-Min and, having previously won the accolade in 2017/18 and 2018/19, and looks set to make it a hat-trick with nine games left to play.
Yet it might not be the only end of season prize the Egyptian could get his hands on come May, with the 29-year-old also in the running for the Premier League Playmaker award. The Reds star currently lies second in the creator charts with 10 assists, despite only creating one goal since early-December.
Level with team-mate Andy Robertson in the rankings, only fellow colleague Trent Alexander-Arnold lies ahead of him, with the England international, who is currently sidelined with a hamstring injury, creating 11 league goals so far this season. Launched in 2017/18, Harry Kane is the current holder of the Playmaker award after completing a goalscorer and creator double last season, with Salah now hoping to follow in the Tottenham striker’s footsteps.
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While the Egypt captain might not have been in the running for the prize before during his five seasons at Anfield, he has been a regular provider as well as goalscorer since moving to Liverpool in the summer of 2017. To date he has 53 assists for the club, with 43 coming in the Premier League and this year the third season he has recorded double-figures in the English top-flight.
Such a trait is not unique to Salah when it comes to Liverpool’s traditional front three, with Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino equally creative since their own moves to Merseyside. The Senegalese might only have one assist to his name this season, but he’s created 37 goals since signing from Southampton in 2016, with 28 of those coming in the English top-flight. Meanwhile, the Brazilian boasts 66 in all competitions and 45 in the Premier League since joining from Hoffenheim in 2015.
Salah has been labelled as 'selfish' by some observers in the past, and has been involved in a couple of minor tiffs for opting to shoot as opposed to passing to team-mates, yet he is the most creative of the trio with neither of his fellow forwards ever returning double-figures in terms of assists in the Premier League.
He is the most creative when it comes to producing big chances too, boasting 67 compared to Firmino’s total of 62 and Mane’s return of 49 during their respective English top-flight careers at Anfield. When so much of the Reds’ attacking play goes through Salah, perhaps this is no surprise.
But considering the attacking trio will all be 30 before the start of next season and are out of contract next year, Jurgen Klopp will have to plan for a future without the trio at some point. On the pitch, the German has brought in replacements, but just how well-equipped are they to replace Salah, Firmino and Mane?
Luis Diaz joined the club in January from FC Porto and has wasted no time in exciting supporters. Looking like he has been playing for Liverpool for years, the early signs regarding the Colombian have been superb. With two goals but no assists in the Premier League so far, those numbers will surely swiftly rise as he continues to adjust to English football.
When it comes to goals, Diogo Jota has no problem. The current second-leader goalscorer in the Premier League with 13 goals from 26 appearances, and 19 goals in all competitions, the Portuguese has built on an impressive maiden campaign at Anfield last year where he delivered 13 goals.
32 goals from 69 appearances, with 22 coming from 45 Premier League matches, is an impressive return for any forward and the Portuguese has often been lauded for bringing an additional goal-threat to Liverpool’s attack that has perhaps been lacking in the past when Firmino leads the line. Yet, as eager as the 25-year-old is to get in the box and get on the end of things, his creative returns can’t yet compete with the traditional front three.
The Portugal international has only ever created three goals for the Reds, and one of those assists was questionably awarded to him by Opta when Diaz’s cutback against Cardiff City earlier this season squirmed through his legs on its way to reaching Takumi Minamino. Meanwhile, he has only created one Premier League goal for Liverpool - coming at Old Trafford to set up Salah on the stroke of half-time in a famous 5-0 win. Meanwhile, he has only ever created eight big chances for the club in the English top-flight.
As good a goalscorer as Jota is, his creative numbers are a clear drop-off compared to those that have started in attack before him. Sure, he provides the goals the Reds have sometimes lacked in the past when things aren’t always going their way but at what cost?
Considering Alexander-Arnold and Robertson are Liverpool’s primary goal creators, perhaps it shouldn’t be a massive concern. After all, Klopp has adjusted his team’s set-up this season to have the former cutting inside so he can be on the ball more in central positions in the final third, while the use of an advanced right-sided midfielder along with the presence of the likes of a Thiago Alcantara or Harvey Elliott do suggest the Reds are adapting to create more goals from elsewhere.
It could be a deliberate change in approach to accommodate him as a result. Or it might be something that Jota will need to add to his game to be a consistent starter for Liverpool in the future as opposed to being reduced to a go-to option when the Reds need a goal. Yet Salah, Firmino and Mane have also been able to enjoy the creative talents of the full-backs and work with this change of system too, while still creating their own goals and setting up chances for each other in a way the Portuguese doesn't provide yet.
Klopp does improve players he works with and the former Wolves man clearly does fit well into his side. But those creative returns compared to the trio reiterate exactly what Liverpool will be saying goodbye to when it’s time for them to depart Anfield, why club bosses haven’t given up trying to persuade the Egyptian to sign a new contract and just how hard they are going to be to replace.
Jota is an emerging Kop hero with his new chant currently a terrace favourite and a go-to ditty on a weekly basis, while the early signs from Diaz suggest he will be an equally popular crowd-pleaser too. But while their presence ensures the Reds’ traditional front three is no longer first-choice at Anfield, when you take a step back, you appreciate just how good the trio have been when leading the line for Liverpool.
The Salah-Firmino-Mane triumvirate really was in a league of its own.
