By Jack Lusby, ThisIsAnfield.com
Mohamed Salah has been by far probably the most influential participant on this season’s Premier League, main the highest flight for targets (27), assists (17), large probabilities created (21) and xG and xA per 90 minutes (1.02).
No participant has scored extra match-winning targets (9), whereas the Egyptian has by far probably the most involvement in his workforce’s targets, with 63.8 p.c both scored or assisted by Liverpool’s No. 11.
That not solely sums up how outstanding Salah’s kind has been all through a marketing campaign that has cemented the Reds as champions-elect, but additionally the burden on his shoulders to tug them to the title.
No different Liverpool participant has scored 10 or extra targets on this season’s Premier League, with Salah’s fellow forwards Luis Díaz (9) and Cody Gakpo (eight) the one others to even internet 5 or extra. Throughout all competitions their output of 13 and 16 targets every is extra respectable, however 5 of Gakpo’s got here within the fourth-priority Carabao Cup.
Whereas it might be one thing of a rarity, the final time Liverpool had a real share of targets between two or extra gamers was once they final lifted the Premier League title in 2019/20 – Salah with 19 and Sadio Mané with 18.
The season earlier than that, Salah and Mané had been tied with 22 league targets apiece, with the pair sharing the Golden Boot with Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in solely the third time the award has been held by three gamers without delay.
Barring a miraculous run within the closing 9 video games of the season, neither Gakpo or Díaz – nor Darwin Núñez or Diogo Jota, for that matter – will come near even troubling the highest 5 on this season’s Golden Boot race.
That’s not to denigrate their enter, in fact, as all of Liverpool’s 5 most established senior forwards have had their half to play in an impressive marketing campaign – however such an unbalanced unfold of targets shouldn’t be tenable season in, season out.
It’s a dynamic shift which Arne Slot can be compelled to take care of, notably if Salah himself opts to depart Anfield on the finish of the season.
Which brings the main focus again to Salah’s previous partner-in-crime in assault, Mané, a participant whom he shared removed from probably the most amiable relationship at instances on the pitch however definitely discovered a fierce understanding as a part of the most effective attacking trio on the planet.
Roberto Firmino‘s affect on Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool was virtually unparalleled and it’s extensively acknowledged that the membership have but to interchange the No. 9, however it’s equally clear that they’ve failed to interchange Mané because the clutch participant alongside Salah.
Throughout Liverpool’s title-winning season of 2019/20, Salah was solely chargeable for 34.1 p.c of his workforce’s targets – with 12 gamers, led by Norwich’s Teemu Pukki, extra relied upon. That was largely resulting from Mané contributing with one other 29.4 p.c of their targets and assists. This season, Díaz has contributed to 18.8 p.c as Liverpool’s second-highest.
There have been large moments from the Senegalese, not least seven match-winning targets in that league marketing campaign – behind solely Raúl Jimenez and Gabriel Jesus (each eight) and equal to each Salah and Firmino – as he grew to become a flat-track bully of sides resembling Newcastle, Aston Villa, Wolves, Norwich, West Ham and Bournemouth.
His courageous header within the fourth minute of stoppage time in a 2-1 win over Villa was thought of the second that really kickstarted Liverpool’s title cost.
Salah (45) and Steven Gerrard (30) are the one gamers to attain extra Champions League targets for the membership than Mané (24), with the pair having made not less than 18 extra appearances within the competitors every.
In actual fact solely 14 gamers in Liverpool’s historical past have discovered the again of the web extra usually than Mané’s 120 targets in 269 video games. Publish-war, with data extra dependable and the game drastically modified, he can be within the prime 10 behind solely Ian Rush, Roger Hunt, Salah, Billy Liddell, Gerrard, Robbie Fowler, Kenny Dalglish and Michael Owen.
These names are among the many most esteemed within the membership’s historical past, however it’s uncommon that Mané’s is spoken in the identical breath.
Which may be as he discovered himself overshadowed by Salah, or maybe as there was extra of a parity between him, Salah and Firmino; it might be due a scarcity of attachment after his departure to Bayern Munich or the downturn he has skilled since.
However the issue Liverpool have confronted in adequately changing the participant who as soon as wore their No. 10 shirt ought to sum up how essential he was to their success.
“He’s the one participant I’ve performed with who I’ve thought I’m glad I don’t need to play towards him,” Trent Alexander-Arnold informed Gary Neville in an interview for The Overlap final 12 months.
“He was the proper attacker. He had all the pieces. As an athlete, in all probability in the long run he was just like Ronaldo. He had the soar, he may stand up, he was quick, he may end. His ending in all probability wasn’t the identical however he may end with each toes. He was only a menace always.”
Mané possessed a bullish attacking menace and an assured two-footedness that allowed him to bother sides from both flank and, in direction of the tip of his time at Anfield, as a central striker. As Alexander-Arnold attests, he grew to become as harmful within the air as he was on the bottom, whereas his tempo on the counter was a significant a part of Klopp’s setup.
For a time, it appeared as if Díaz may provide the identical maverick high quality, however two severe accidents to the identical knee seem to have sapped the Colombian of both his confidence or that unpredictability in one-on-one conditions.
It’s also honest to say that Liverpool are nonetheless but to seek out one other attacker as ruthless as Mané; as prepared and able to charging down misplaced causes; as decisive round within the 18-yard field.
Slot has, in fact, opted for a unique mould of left winger in Gakpo, whose capability to chop inside onto his proper and take a look at goalkeepers with phenomenal capturing energy has drawn comprehensible comparisons with Arjen Robben.
However there stays a gap within the Liverpool squad the place Mané’s attributes was once, and forward of a summer time that might see quite a few attackers go away – with query marks over Díaz, Núñez and Jota’s future together with Salah’s contract – it could be clever for the membership to focus on a participant with the identical relentless high quality.
Whether or not that’s potential is, in fact, one other matter – as Mané’s focal function in Liverpool modern-day success ought to be extra extensively acknowledged. A legend who nonetheless has not been changed.
(Cowl picture from IMAGO)
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