In recent weeks it has felt like Mohamed Salah has been breaking Liverpool records on a weekly basis.
This season alone, he has overtaken Michael Owen, Sir Kenny Dalglish and Robbie Fowler in the Reds’ all-time top goalscorers charts, while his early winner against Brentford last weekend saw him move level with Steven Gerrard on 186 goals in fifth place. The strike against the Bees was his 30th goal of the season and also his 100th Anfield goal, while it saw him become the first Liverpool player to score in nine consecutive home matches.
Just a couple of weeks earlier, against Leeds United, the Egyptian had overtaken Fowler to become the scorer of the most left-footed goals in Premier League history. Meanwhile, he has 13 goals from his last 16 starts to help lead the Reds’ late surge for an unlikely top-four finish.
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With three games of the season remaining, you’d expect the 30-year-old to overtake Gerrard in Liverpool’s scoring charts before the end of the month, while also breaking the 20-goal barrier in the Premier League yet again. Of course, without missed penalties against AFC Bournemouth and Arsenal, he’d already boast such records. Whether his efforts are enough to deliver top-four football, only time will tell.
In hindsight, it’s remarkable that, given the Reds’ poor form for the majority of the season, it was only a couple of months ago when Salah was deemed to be having a quiet campaign as onlookers questioned the wisdom in making him the highest-paid player in the club’s history last summer.
For the record, he needs two goals from Liverpool’s last three games of the season to record the second-highest return of his career, second only to his super-human efforts in the 2017/18 season when announced his arrival at Anfield with a record-breaking 44 goals.
Of course, perhaps his impact has been shadowed this year by that of Erling Haaland at Manchester City. Joining from Borussia Dortmund in a £51.2m deal last summer, the Norwegian has recorded an astonishing 35 Premier League goals in his maiden campaign in England to break a couple of Salah records himself, while his overall total stands at 51 goals as he looks to finish the campaign as a treble-winner with Pep Guardiola’s side.
Jurgen Klopp was asked about Salah’s goalscoring returns at his most recent press conference, with it suggested that the Egyptian was in danger of being overlooked because of Haaland’s own record-breaking totals. Having faced such a line of questioning in various forms in recent weeks, the German delivered the perfect response.
“No, not from us, not from the Liverpool supporters, maybe from you,” Klopp told reporters. “This question is now not the first time that I hear it. Not from us.
“I’ve said it a lot of times, he will be an all-time great when he finishes his career but now he is still in his career. If you see Mo every day, there’s still a really good few years in his legs and in his body and the numbers will improve. That’s absolutely great.
“No, we don’t overlook it but when the question is asked that often you might be guilty to overlook it.”
In truth, Salah was in even better form at the start of last season as he returned an astonishing 15 goals from the first 12 games of the campaign, with his overall record standing at 23 goals from 26 matches when the time came to depart for Africa Cup of Nations duty in January 2022.
In truth, his international exploits derailed him. He would lose in the Africa Cup of Nations final on penalties to Senegal at the start of February, having had to battle through extra-time four times across 12 days, before missing in Egypt’s shootout defeat to the same opponents in March after another torturous 120 minutes as they missed out on qualifying for the World Cup.
With uncertainty over his Anfield future also hanging over his head, with his old contract set to expire in the summer of 2023, it was understandable why his form could not reach the same previous heights.
Following his return from AFCON, he would score just eight times from 25 matches for Liverpool, with only five coming from open play as the Reds won a domestic cup double but missed out on the Premier League title on the last day of the season before losing to Real Madrid in the Champions League final.
There was perhaps a suggestion that a hangover from such excursions continued into the current campaign, despite resolving his future by extending his contract until 2025 last summer. A return of seven Premier League goals from his first 20 matches of the season was certainly underwhelming from a player of Salah’s talents, regardless of Haaland’s own extravagant returns.
But since netting in February’s Merseyside derby win over Everton, the Egyptian hasn’t looked back. Scoring 12 goals in his last 14 Premier League starts, he has soared up the scoring charts with only Haaland, regular foe Harry Kane, and Ivan Toney ahead of him. Not bad for a ‘declining forward’ enduring a ‘quiet season’ for a struggling side.
As previously mentioned, the forward’s next goal will equal the second-best haul of his career and ensured he has recorded 31 goals in each of the past three seasons. Meanwhile, it will also be his 20th Premier League goal of the season, with the only time he has failed to hit such a landmark curiously being when he ‘only’ scored 19 in Liverpool’s title-winning campaign in 2019/20.
Of course, it’s not only goals Salah delivers. He lays on assists too, having set up 11 goals for his team-mates this season. With his overall goal contributions therefore standing at 41 goals, he has only bettered such a total in 2017/18 (58) and 2021/22 (46). A combined total of five goals and assists in the final three games of the season would at least equal last year.
Having ‘burst’ into life in 2023, perhaps it is fair to suggest that the Egyptian actually benefited from not competing in a mid-season World Cup in Qatar. Of course, with the Africa Cup of Nations again taking place next January, that presents a future headache for Klopp to contend with.
Set to turn 31 in June, and contracted to the Reds for a further two years at least, the goals and assists are set to keep flowing for Salah. Yet, did we ever doubt they would?
Remember, we are in an era where we see Zlatan Ibrahimovic still playing for AC Milan at the age 41, and the likes of Lionel Messi, Luka Modric, Karim Benzema and Robert Lewandowski thriving at the highest level well into their late-30s. Prior to recent moves to Saudi Arabia and South America, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez could claim the same.
When signing his new contract with Liverpool last summer, club sources confirmed his initial wage was under £400,000 a week with some reports suggesting a total around the £350,000-a-week mark. However, his deal was heavily incentivised, ensuring he would earn more than £400,000 a week if he continued to hit big numbers. In terms of structure, it was said that his deal was, ‘essentially built on reward for the level of goal contributions/involvements’.
By signing such a deal, Salah backed himself to continue to repeat the levels of his first five seasons at Anfield. While he might not have the silverware to accompany it this season, the forward has certainly lived up to his side of the bargain.
While Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino, his former strike-partners, have struggled for goals and fitness at times this season, Salah's consistent goal returns and availability are untouched. An ever-present in the Premier League and Champions League this year, he has, overlooking obligatory AFCON duty, only not been fit for six of the Reds’ 282 league and European games over this period.
Nearly a year on from becoming the best-paid player in Liverpool’s history and Salah has delivered what he promised. He’s still scoring goals, claiming assists, and available to play whenever his side need him. Reds bosses’ decision to award him such a lucrative contract has been justified.
Of course, no-one would have anticipated a possible season of Europa League football being part of the equation 12 months on from the forward putting pen to paper on such terms. But if he continues to follow in the footsteps of Messrs Messi, Benzema and Lewandowski, and keep delivering such returns well into his mid-30s, Champions League football, if not clinched this month, and silverware will swiftly return to Anfield soon enough.
And of course, with two years now left on his contract, it won’t be long before the cycle regarding his long-term future resumes once more. Let the others gossip, Salah is doing all his talking out on the pitch.
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