Believe it or not, Mohamed Salah is underrated.
By Sam McGuire, Premier League expert
Yes, the three-time Premier League Golden Boot winner with 201 goals for Liverpool across all competitions since moving to Anfield in 2017 is underrated. In a way, he always has been.
The 31-year-old is known for his goalscoring exploits and rightly so having averaged 23 league goals per season over the past six campaigns. He even held the record for the most goals (32) in a single season until Erling Haaland found the back of the net on 36 occasions last year. What makes Salah’s feats for the Reds even more remarkable is that he’s been doing it as a wide forward.
He will go down as one of the best attackers in Premier League history. But that alone would be doing him a disservice. Why? Because Salah is also one of the best creators in top-flight history. He’s just never acknowledged for it because the focus is usually on his ability to put the ball into the back of the net at an alarming rate.
Since moving to Merseyside, Salah has averaged 10 assists per season. Heading into Liverpool’s top-of-the-table clash with Arsenal at Anfield, the former Roma man is on seven for the 2023/24 campaign. He’s tied with Pedro Neto and Kieran Trippier for the most assists in the Premier League this season and yet the plaudits have been going the way of Neto and Trippier whenever creative players are discussed.
He has three assists in his past five Premier League matches. These have been big ones too. He assisted the equaliser against Manchester City, he set up Wataru Endo for an equaliser against Fulham just moments before Trent Alexander-Arnold won the game for the Reds. Then he played the pass to Harvey Elliott for the winner against Crystal Palace.
This, of course, doesn’t factor in the controversially disallowed Luis Díaz goal against Spurs. Salah threaded the perfectly timed pass through to the Colombia international. He should be on eight assists for the season after just 17 matches.
His return this season is even more impressive when you consider he’s still scoring goals. Only Erling Haaland (14) has found the back of the net on more occasions than Salah (11) while no player has more goal involvements (18) than the one-time Chelsea winger.
He is delivering as a goalscorer, as a goal threat and as a creator.
He’s ramped up his production as a creative outlet though this season.
It was always going to be on the agenda this term. Salah isn’t getting any younger and Liverpool need to futureproof their attack in the sense they had to ease the overreliance on their No. 11. Physically, he may soon begin to wane. There is also doubt over his long-term future at the club.
Salah is being targeted by the Saudi Pro League and with just one year left on his deal come the end of the current season, this could well be his last in England with Liverpool potentially cashing in on him.
The Reds couldn’t replace Salah the goal machine. It would’ve been impossible. So, with a few tweaks to his role, he is now easier to replace. It will still be difficult but with his Expected Goal numbers dropping, the pool of potential replacements opens up. And there’s now much more of an emphasis on him as a creator in this team.
In many ways, he’s stepped up to fill the void left by Roberto Firmino. He’s taken up that mantle and he’s pulling the strings for this new-look Liverpool attack.
At the time of writing this, Salah is posting some incredible creative numbers for the Reds in the Premier League. As previously mentioned, he ranks joint-first for assists. He ranks first for Big Chances Created (13) and he’s fifth for Expected Assists. His return of 0.26 Expected Assists per 90 is actually the highest he’s posted for Liverpool.
Salah is a dual threat like nobody else in the Premier League. He has the second-most goals in the league and the most assists. Others are looking to rival him for the crown of best wide forward in the English top-flight but they’re still falling short.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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