Mohamed Salah's Simple Brilliance
Liverpool have their sights set on a potentially historic season. The man leading the charge is still waiting on a new contract.
It feels like a lifetime ago that Liverpool dismantled Manchester United 3-0 in Gameweek 3 at Old Trafford. Mohamed Salah was brilliant that day. It’s been more of the same ever since.
Liverpool sit - amazingly - 13 points clear at the top of the Premier League table. That alone would’ve made me laugh if you told it to me back in the summer. To say Nottingham Forest was closer to them than Manchester City would’ve made you a certified lunatic in my eyes.
But both of those things are true. And this isn’t a piece about the crumbling demise of Pep Guardiola’s superteam into whatever they are now. We’re here to appreciate the outstanding job Arne Slot has done in his first season in the Anfield dugout. We’re here to appreciate the greatness being put on display by #11.
A few of Mo Salah’s finest moments over the years have made for some of my worst. He enjoys a game against my beloved Manchester United. But I have to put my bias aside and recognise that this is no flukey year; no Linsanity run in the world of football: we’re nearing a decade of dominance by this player in the world’s best league.
His lack of Ballon d’Or recognition is stunning. Most discourse tends to underrate him. But his body of work since arriving in Merseyside is special, and he might just be having his finest year yet.
25 goals and 17 assists on the season in the Premier League alone. He’s got five more goals than Erling Haaland in second. No other player has more than ten assists either. Pure domination; matched fittingly by his side - and his new manager - who already have a hand on the trophy.
I’m a big Bruno Fernandes fan. There’s a remarkable statistic that reads as follows:
Since Fernandes’ Premier League debut, Manchester United have won 76 points as a direct result of his goals and assists. The only player to win more points for his team with his goal contributions in that span? Mohamed Salah with 120.
Salah is spectacular. And part of his brilliance is in his simplicity: he’s incisive, decisive, and breathtakingly clinical. He makes the game look easy. He’s always in control. He picks the ball up in tight pockets and somehow creates space to run into or finds the perfect pass to play. And he has fun while he’s doing it.
One has to wonder why he remains out of contract come the summer. Across all the sports I love, I’ve seen plenty of players on the wrong side of 30 secure a lucrative contract and fall off a cliff. I’ve also seen the best of the best continue to prove their worth until closer to age 40. The ‘Egyptian King’ is starting to look like he’s of the latter calibre.
In the meantime, he has enough contract left to win three more trophies. If this is indeed his last hoorah, there’s lots still to win.
It was hard to judge the difficulty level associated with Slot’s arrival from the Netherlands. He was, after all, replacing a gargantuan figure. Jürgen Klopp was probably the best manager we’ve seen needing replacing since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement. But the Dutchman has surpassed all expectations.
A Premier League alone would be a massive success. Should Slot achieve a domestic double with the Carabao Cup, he’d rightfully receive massive praise. And a Champions League triumph would have his name quickly etched into Liverpudlian history.
If he’s to do that, he’ll need everything he’s already getting from Salah. It’s certainly not beyond the realm of possibility.
It’s a mountainous task to win big trophies without a single one of your own signings. But it definitely helps - as is the case for Slot - when one of those players you inherited is Mo Salah.
Unless they collapse (which I can’t say I’m not hoping for), Liverpool will be Premier League champions. They might just be more than that come May 31st after the Champions League final. Conclusively, it’s all being made fully possible by the tricky Egyptian running down the wing.
WOOOOOO FUTBOL