Only one story could stop Liverpool scoring five goals at Old Trafford being the main story of the day, and that was Manchester United conceding five goals at Old Trafford.
The fallout and talk around the future of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has – and rightly so – been the main talking point from the Earth-shattering game on Monday morning (AEDT), but the display of Liverpool’s attack without Sadio Mane is worthy of just as great a reaction, and Mohamed Salah in particular.
Salah has now scored in 10 consecutive games for Liverpool in all competitions, finding the back of the net 14 times over that period, with the 2-0 win over Burnley in the second match of the season being the only one he has played and failed to score in.
He did not misplace a single pass in the first half of the game and prompted panic whenever he moved, like a wasp buzzing around the barbecue. Manchester United’s defence was all over the place but that was due in part to how he was able to drag and pull them out of position and left poor Luke Shaw not knowing where to turn.
“He’s phenomenal,” Jurgen Klopp glowed of his form a couple of weeks ago. “At the moment, for sure, he’s the best player in the world. I’ve got no problem mentioning that’s the case.
“Come on, who is better than him? We don’t have to talk about what Messi and Ronaldo have done for world football and their dominance but, right now, he is the best.”
Salah now has 10 goals and five assists in nine games and is currently scoring at a higher rate than his record-breaking 32-goal season in 2017/18 when he scored or assisted a goal every 70 minutes. This season he is scoring or assisting every 54 minutes.
It’s no accident that he has improved to become the best in the world this season, or that he has produced so many ‘wow’ moments already this year that he is on track to having a goal of the season competition all to himself.
Salah enjoyed a seven-week break between the final game of the 2020/21 season before reporting for a full pre-season in Austria in July. While the European and South American superstars were at the Euros and Copa America, he was dividing his time off between the beach and the gym. It’s the first time he has had a full break and preseason since joining the club in 2017. He accepted Liverpool’s decision not to allow him to participate in the Tokyo Olympics and he is benefitting as a result of it, returning to the club this season in “incredible physical shape”.
“Even top players need a break. This in combination with a full pre-season created the right base,” Liverpool assistant boss Pep Lijnders told The Athletic earlier this month.
“Sometimes people underestimate the importance of regaining freshness after emotional, high-intensity playing periods. His mentality since the start of the pre-season has been outstanding. He’s a true example.”
Salah has been one of the big beneficiaries of the club nutritionist Mona Nemmer, as his improved diet is noticeably paying off, while he has grown very close to the conditioning coaches led by Andreas Kornmayer, who was recruited from Bayern Munich.
That has resulted in a far greater workrate, particularly defensively. In his first couple of seasons he would touch the ball almost exclusively in the opposition half, but this year has seen him embrace his defensive responsibilities and link-up play. That has coincided with the return to form of Trent Alexander-Arnold, who has benefitted hugely from Salah’s extra efforts.
According to The Telegraph, there is a joke that Salah must leave his car parked at the training ground as it’s always there when people arrive in the morning and hasn’t moved by the time they leave in the afternoon.
He’s played every minute of every Premier League game so far and spends very few games out injured – he has only missed seven of his 156 since joining Liverpool. His robustness is one of his stand-out attributes.
He is also creating more than he ever has before, which has rubbed off with the form of the other two protagonists, particularly Mane, who was absent from the Old Trafford rout.
Salah is creating more chances per 90 minutes for Mane than at any other moment in the time they’ve spent together at Liverpool. It was always the stick to beat both players with, that they were too selfish and would rather score than assist the other. It came to a boiling point when Salah’s decision to go for goal rather than pass caused Mane to explode and still was unable to calm down after being substituted a few minutes later.
But it’s not just for Mane. Salah is, on average, creating 2.34 chances per game for his teammates. He’s becoming the complete player.
That’s why the Ballon d’Or talk is beginning to heat up.
“Comparing players with Ronaldo and Messi is something you can’t do,” Salah has said. “They’re in another orbit. There are players who are in fashion, those who come and go and others who stay around.”
For a player that was once branded a ‘one-season wonder’, there is no question that Salah has stuck around. And right now, he’s on a different planet to everyone else.
Story first published on Fox Sports Australia