Mohamed Salah arrived from Roma on the wings of a 15-goal season, which was promising but didn’t forecast what would happen next. Halfway into the 2017/18 season, Salah already reached those 15 goals. The odds of him becoming Premier League’s top scorer were low, 67 (66/1) to be precise, yet he won the Golden Boot by scoring a remarkable 32 times in 38 PL games, more than anyone in league history.
Mohamed Salah is special
Repeating that type of accomplishment seems impossible, but the stats say otherwise. You see, Mohamed Salah knows how to get into a scoring position. He’s fast, quick, agile, smart and always prepared. Plus, he has the support of his teammates. The argument teams will adapt to Salah and be able to stop him is defused immediately by the fact teams knew what was coming during the second half of last season, but couldn’t adjust anyway. He actually scored more goals since the calendar turned (17), created more chances for himself and for his teammates, shot the ball more often and had more touches in the opposition box.
“The numbers for expected goals and touches in the box just prove that it is the positions that he takes up and the runs that he makes,”
“It is not set in stone who should be picking him up. Is it the full-back or the centre-back? Teams have played three at the back against Liverpool and not had much success. It’s just not easy with his positioning.” – Jamie Carragher
What’s even scarier is Mohamed Salah could’ve scored even more. He had 144 shot attempts last season (only Harry Kane had more) and according to Opta stats, he missed more clear chances than anyone in the league (23). He also had more touches inside the penalty area than anyone else.
“You can talk about stopping players but the one thing that you cannot stop a player doing is running,”
“He makes great diagonal runs in that left channel between the centre-back and left-back and he’s quicker than most defenders. He is not wide, he is very narrow and it ensures that he is always in a position to score. It is no flash in the pan.” – Jamie Carragher
30 goals again?
Two games into the season and the signs of a repeat are already there. He has two goals in the first three games, more shots and more touches in the opposition box than anyone else in the league. Furthermore, Jurgen Klopp has devised another plan how to use Salah and prevent teams from stopping him by employing the “Egyptian King” as a central striker, moving Mane and Firmino into midfield to provide support. Expecting him to break the 30-goal barrier again might be asking too much, considering eight of the last nine players who scored 30 failed to do so the following season, but don’t be shocked if he does. Mohamed Salah is that good.
