Sixty-eight. That is how many players, in the 126-year history of Liverpool Football Club have accumulated more goals for the Reds than Mohamed Salah. Out of context, that may not seem like such an impressive statistic, but when taking into account that the Egyptian has been at Anfield for less than ten months, it begins to take on new meaning.
40 goals and 11 assists in 45 appearances, averaging a goal involvement every 70 minutes. In the past five years, only four players in Europe’s major leagues have produced those kinds of numbers over more than 2000 minutes. Two of them won the Ballon D’or. The other two were Luis Suarez and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The 25-year old is in exalted company.
Within the annals of Liverpool, that remains the case. Having overturned the likes of Robbie Fowler, Fernando Torres and the aforementioned Suarez, only all-time top scorer Ian Rush and club legend Roger Hunt, with 47 and 42 goals, respectively, have outscored Salah over the course of a single season for the Reds. In short, the former Roma man has massively exceeded all reasonable expectations, and while he is enjoying his moment, Salah stresses that the team comes first.
“There’s a big chance to break the record, to be number one for a club like Liverpool, it’s something huge,” the adorable assassin told the club’s official site. “I will be very happy if I break it. I’m happy about 40, I want to keep scoring, I want to be number one for the record.
”It’s always good when you see your name with legends of a club like Liverpool, it’s a different feeling and I’m very happy about that. But I always try to look at myself and I want more. I have 40 now, I’m telling myself, ‘Why not? You can be number one!’
”I will try my best to break the record,” he continued. “But, as I’ve said before, we play as 11 players, I play for the team. It’s not about individual awards, it’s something for the team. I’m sure if I have a chance to give it to someone else to score, I will - it’s not about me, it’s about us.”
While there was seemingly a selfish streak in the prolific front man’s game during Saturday’s 3-0 win over Bournemouth — taking shots when an obvious pass appeared the better option on several occasions — Salah has been sharing the goods all season, setting up a shot half as often as taking one on himself, a rare trait in a striker. With notorious dubious goal-claimer Harry Kane a mere four strikes behind on the Premier League top scoring list, the Liverpool man could be forgiven for wanting to keep his streak going.
I, for one, wouldn’t begrudge him another eight in the run-in.