How fitting that Mohamed Salah marked coronation day by writing more history at Anfield.
Another match-winning goal and more records to further enhance his elite status in the pantheon of Liverpool legends. When he bundled home Virgil van Dijk’s header early on, he became the first player in the club’s 131-year history to score in nine successive home matches.
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His 100th goal at Anfield moved him level with Steven Gerrard in joint fifth place in Liverpool’s all-time scoring list on 186. Salah has made 408 fewer appearances than their talismanic former captain.
The defining moment in a scrappy victory over Brentford also took him to the 30-goal milestone in all competitions for a third consecutive season. Only three Liverpool players have achieved that feat — Roger Hunt, Ian Rush and Robbie Fowler.
Not bad for a winger.
Mohamed Salah scores against Brentford (Photo: Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)After the boos that greeted the national anthem before kick-off, Anfield reserved its adulation for the man they crowned the Egyptian King.
“The numbers he creates, we all know that after his career he will be seen as one of the all-time greats, that’s clear,” Jurgen Klopp said. “But now he is still in the career and some people might not appreciate him enough, but we do. Being the first one who scores in nine consecutive home games is super special. Scoring again 30 goals this season is super special and setting up a lot as well.”
The numbers really are staggering. Since his arrival from Roma for £43.9million (now $55m) in 2017, Salah is averaging a goal every 133 minutes for Liverpool.
None of the illustrious names above him on the club’s all-time scorers list – Ian Rush (346, one every 165 minutes), Roger Hunt (285, one every 154 minutes), Gordon Hodgson (241, one every 141 minutes) and Billy Liddell (228, one every 211 minutes) – netted at such a rate.
How Liverpool's leading scorers compare
Player
| Goals
| Matches
| Mins per goal
|
|---|---|---|---|
Ian Rush | 346 | 660 | 165 |
Roger Hunt | 285 | 492 | 154 |
Gordon Hodgson | 241 | 377 | 141 |
Billy Liddell | 228 | 534 | 211 |
Mo Salah | 186 | 302 | 133 |
Salah, who has already gone past Sir Kenny Dalglish and Fowler this season, will have his sights set on leapfrogging both Liddell and Hodgson over the next two years. As he approaches his 31st birthday next month, he is showing no signs of slowing down.
He has made a mockery of those misplaced suggestions earlier in the season that he had eased off after ending speculation over his future by signing a new three-year contract on around £350,000 per week last summer — making him the highest-paid player in the club’s history.
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Yes, the goals dried up for a period, but that was largely down to the collective failings of a team which had alarmingly lost its way. Salah found himself isolated out on the right flank as he suffered from Liverpool’s lack of cohesion and control.
At the halfway stage of the Premier League season, he had just seven league goals and four assists to his name. In the past 15 games he has significantly bolstered that tally to 19 goals and seven assists. He has led the charge in Liverpool’s recent resurgence.
Having averaged a top-flight goal every 241 minutes in the first half of the campaign, that figure for 2022-23 now stands at 159 minutes.
(Photo: Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)But for those missed penalties against Bournemouth and Arsenal, his prolific streak would look even more impressive. He has benefited from Klopp’s tactical tweaks which have helped get him on the ball more often in dangerous areas.
One of Salah’s most underrated qualities is his durability. During a season when Liverpool have suffered from a succession of demoralising injury setbacks, once again he’s been available throughout.
He has sat out just 121 minutes of top-flight football — having been substituted on four occasions and introduced off the bench away to Chelsea. Liverpool have played 225 Premier League games since signing Salah nearly six years ago and he’s played in 215 of them (96 per cent).
That’s not a fluke. It’s testament to how he leads his life — he’s the ultimate professional with the attention he pays to his diet, how he recovers between games, the time he spends in the gym and his commitment to yoga sessions.
He’s the perfect role model for the club’s youngsters and should be added to Liverpool’s leadership group this summer when the exit of vice-captain James Milner creates a vacancy.
To clock up more than 300 club appearances in six seasons is even more remarkable when you consider all those bruising battles with defenders. The lack of free kicks he’s awarded has long since bemused Klopp, who admires how the Egyptian deals with that treatment.
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“I work really hard and I’m just motivated to keep breaking records, scoring goals and winning games for the team,” Salah said. “I feel at home here, I’m happy.”
How different Liverpool’s recent history would have looked if Julian Brandt had been more enthusiastic about the prospect of moving to Anfield from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2017.
The Germany international was initially targeted when Klopp was in the market for a winger but he had doubts over whether he would play regularly given the presence of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Philippe Coutinho.
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The genius of Mohamed Salah – by Robbie Fowler (the man whose Liverpool record he beat)
Brandt opted to stay put and Michael Edwards, Liverpool’s then sporting director, Dave Fallows, the head of recruitment, and Barry Hunter, the chief scout, convinced Klopp that Salah was the perfect alternative. You need good fortune as well as a shrewd recruitment strategy.
Salah had unfinished business in the Premier League after his short stint at Chelsea when he felt he was unfairly overlooked and he has proved his point emphatically.
“He’s a machine,” raved Klopp. “He’s grown here as a player and as a personality.”
The feeling persists that Salah’s feats don’t get the wider credit he deserves but at Anfield, he’s adored and no wonder given the names he’s going past in the history books.
The conversation over who is Liverpool’s greatest ever is currently dominated by talk of Dalglish and Gerrard. But Salah is on his way to having his own say.
(Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
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