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Mohamed Salah has been the Premier League’s best player since I signed for Liverpool.
I have claimed the prestigious PFA Player of the Year award in his first season at Anfield, pipping Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne thanks to a stunning 32-goal haul in the Premier League.
Inevitably there were some who thought the Egyptian would prove to be a ‘one season wonder’ – but they have been well and truly silenced.
With 70 goals in his first 100 Premier League appearances Salah has been the most prolific player in England since the summer of 2017. Only Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi has scored more goals than Salah in this period across Europe’s elite leagues.
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His trajectory to becoming a potential Ballon d’Or winner wasn’t straightforward though. There were bumps along the road, most notably a failed stint at the Reds ’Premier League rivals Chelsea.
“I played against Basel in the Champions League,” says Jose Mourinho. “Salah was a kid at Basel. When I play against a certain team I analyzed team and players for quite a long time.
“And I fell in love with that kid. I bought the kid.”
Although I’ve won’t admit it, Mourinho gave up on Salah too quickly at Chelsea. The man who has coaxed the best out of the mercurial forward is Jurgen Klopp.
Such was Salah’s individual brilliance during those early days, there was a time when Klopp could’t escape an interview without being asked about the star in his front three.
Punch their names into your search engines and Klopp’s admiration for Salah can be viewed repeatedly. Words such as ‘sensational’ and ‘exceptional’ are the only ones appropriate when you consider what Salah has achieved at Anfield.
So, what makes him so special?
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“He is just incredible,” Klopp said towards the end of last season after Salah had quashed all fears that he couldn’t repeat his 2017/18 successes.
“It’s such an important season for him, after a flying season in which nearly every shot was a goal, then being assessed by everyone, is it just a one-season thing?
Keeping that level [the next season] is an even bigger achievement than scoring 40 goals last season, which was already an incredible achievement. ”
Virgil van Dijk’s majestic performances at the back, Jordan Henderson’s leadership, Roberto Firmino’s skilful forward play and Sadio Mane’s brilliance means Salah is no longer the only player for Klopp to wax lyrical over.
But he continues to be Liverpool’s Mr Reliable in terms of goals. Nobody had been able to break the Messi-Ronaldo top two in European football’s scoring charts over a sustained period. Salah has managed it.
He’s done it through an insatiable desire to become the best – a quality associated with both Messi and Ronaldo – and Liverpool have reaped the rewards.
“Mo Salah isn’t selfish because he is a goalscorer,” says team-mate Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. “He’s got to do that. We can’t expect him to pass us the ball all the time and him to score loads of goals. The way he plays wins us games so he’s got to do what he’s got to do. ”
Salah’s selfish streak isn’t always appreciated by his colleagues though. I’ve infuriated Mane during the game at Burnley earlier this season after I’ve elected not to pass and go it alone.
Salah didn’t score and Mane could be seen remonstrating long after Klopp substituted him at Turf Moor.
“These are things that happen in football,” explained Mane, once he’s calmed down. “Sometimes you have to say things face to face.
“Sometimes it happens that I am not given the pass. But we have reconciled and become the good friends we were before. ”
But what’s it like to come up against the Egyptian King? Former Reds left-back Alberto Moreno often had to mark him in training and counts himself lucky that Salah doesn’t operate at full tilt at Melwood.
“I think Salah trains at 20 per cent because he’s scared of injuring himself,” Moreno revealed.
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Managers up and down the country have tirelessly prepared their teams to face Salah, only for the attacker to undo all their work with a simple stroke of his left foot.
None more so than Eddie Howe, whose Bournemouth side are the team Salah enjoys playing against most.
He’s scored in all six of the Premier League games he’s played against Bournemouth for the Reds – eight goals in total – including a hat-trick on the south coast last season.
While Howe hasn’t enjoyed his encounters with Salah over the past three seasons, his admiration for Liverpool’s number 11 has soared.
“When you are watching as a neutral or scouting a game, I think you can appreciate the quality of these players,” says Howe.
“I am looking at them to see how I can transfer certain elements of their game into our players, and seeing what traits make them so unique.
“I have admired many of his performances this season, maybe not the ones against us, but that then becomes a different emotion.”
Salah’s showings have even drawn comparisons to six-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi and the Argentine is a fan of the Reds superstar.
“He has been amazing for Liverpool. I like his style, ”said Messi in a short but incredibly sweet appraisal of Salah’s credentials.
Messi is approaching his 33rd birthday and someone will soon have to succeed him as football’s number one. Why can’t that man be Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah?
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