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Liverpool Echo

Sport

Paul Gorst

Mohamed Salah has one thing left to prove as Cody Gakpo begins new Liverpool era

Mohamed Salah Liverpool Cody Gakpo Jurgen Klopp Anfield (Organization) Cristiano Ronaldo Kenny Dalglish Virgil van Dijk EPL Darwin Nunez

Another Liverpool game, another Mohamed Salah milestone. Well, three in total to be exact this time.

Salah's 16th of the campaign, secured in a 3-1 win at Aston Villa on Boxing Night, takes the Egyptian to 172 in total for the Reds, equalling the great Sir Kenny Dalglish's during his own decorated spell at Anfield.

For anyone connected to Liverpool, there can surely be no greater honour than being spoken about alongside the iconic Dalglish, a man many consider to be the greatest to have ever turned out in front of the Kop. It was something Jurgen Klopp acknowledged himself in his post-match press conference after the victory on December 26.

"I heard now about Mo, it is crazy!" Klopp said. "When you are mentioned in the same sentence with Sir Kenny Dalglish then you have done something right. And in this moment especially it is a big one as well."

There were more comparisons with greats to be found later in the game though when Salah laid a ball back for Virgil van Dijk to double the lead at Villa Park. That assist was enough for him to join Steven Gerrard as the only players to have registered at least 125 goals and 50 assists for the Reds in the Premier League era.

And for those who like their statistics a little more obscure, Salah's goal sees him equal Michael Owen's record of 55 away goals in the Premier League, while he is now just one behind Robbie Fowler's tally of 105 left-footed goals in the current top flight.

These are the kinds of figures of Anfield history that Salah is now being named alongside as a matter of routine and it is company he is totally at ease in.

That brand new contract that was signed in the searing heat of the Mykonos summer in late June will take Salah up to just before his 33rd birthday at Liverpool, but in era where the game's most dedicated players are performing to higher levels for longer, it will be interesting to see just how the uber professional Egyptian is able to continue churning out the numbers for Klopp.

Cristiano Ronaldo's current situation is perhaps not the ideal comparison given that his unhappiness at being left on the fringes of Manchester United eventually led to his mid-season dismissal, but the 37-year-old did still register 18 Premier League goals last term before Erik ten Hag eventually froze out the Portugal superstar.

If the case of Ronaldo is an imperfect example to use, the output of Lionel Messi at the Qatar World Cup is more heartening for the game's elite players who are looking to extend greatness into their mid-30s. The Argentina star, at the age of 34, was imperious throughout as he guided his team to victory in the Middle East.

Given Salah's supreme commitment to his own game, it would be no shock if he continued at his current level for years to come. Liverpool's confidence of that was revealed by the decision to hand a 30-year-old the most lucrative contract of all time at Anfield last summer.

It was a deal that sources said was protracted because of Salah's almost unique status within football and the fact that it was indeed the most sizable in club history. It was a complex contract that needed to fit within the Reds' financial model while also suitably rewarding a player who has become one of the leading lights of the Premier League during his time on Merseyside.

Given the shift in the game with regards to how players are performing for longer, it may not even be Salah's final terms at Liverpool. “One or two years ago the first three players of the Ballon d’Or, apart from Salah who is slightly younger, were all 34 or older," Klopp said in February.

“Robert Lewandowski is 33, then Messi and Ronaldo (are) 34 and 37 and if you are lucky enough to get through a career without major injuries you can play long. There is no peak in the mid-20s [now]. The massive advantage of early 30s, mid-30s is the player can see things in the right way having learned in his career."

Sources indicated earlier this year that Salah had indeed backed himself to continue performing at the same level he has generally been at since he moved to Merseyside in the summer of 2017. It was one of the reasons why there was no concern handing out those sorts of sums to someone who had just turned 30.

"Mo is obsessed with numbers, performances and achievements," said one and given Salah's mentality to extract everything out of his more natural gifts, it would be more of a surprise if Liverpool 's No.11 started to wane when he reaches his mid-30s.

Sporting director Julian Ward has been busy rebuilding Liverpool's attack over the last 12 months, lowering the average age with the signings of Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo, whose expected arrival at an initial £37m will take that spending to around the £140m mark, but it will be Salah who those younger performers will be looking to emulate in the long term.

The restructuring of the attacking department was a long-term strategy as Liverpool officials slowly started to look beyond the era of Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino. Mane, of course, was moved on to Bayern Munich and Firmino's situation is uncertain as he enters the last six months of his deal, but there was never any real countenance to a life without Salah at Anfield.

And how heartening it must be for Reds fans to think that some of Salah's best days are still lying in wait as something of a new era begins with Nunez, Diaz and Gakpo on board. Maybe, then, the only thing left for Salah to prove at Liverpool is just where he will eventually stand in the pantheon of the all-time Anfield greats.

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