A look back at Jurgen Klopp’s comments on Mohamed Salah following his arrival from Roma in 2017 highlights just how much he has transformed at Liverpool. “I’ve followed him since he emerged at Basel and he has matured into a really good player,” Klopp said.
At the time, it hardly seemed an exaggeration. Salah had impressed in Italy but returned to England as a so-called Chelsea reject determined to prove himself. Klopp noted that he would add competitiveness in an area of the pitch where Liverpool were “already strong.”
It soon became obvious that he would contribute far more than that. By December of his first season, after equalling Roger Hunt’s club record of 23 goals before the end of the year, Klopp was asked if Salah had surpassed expectations. “One hundred per cent,” he replied.
It is fair to say his signing reshaped Liverpool’s history. Salah has scored 255 goals in 435 games, ranking third on the club’s all-time scoring list, and he is likely to add to that tally before leaving at the end of the campaign.
He has helped Liverpool win as many league titles in eight seasons as they had in the previous 30, not to mention the Champions League and six other trophies won since his arrival.
His exact ranking among the Premier League’s greatest players will always spark debate. But it is clear that Salah has secured a place near the top.
Only Alan Shearer, Wayne Rooney, and Harry Kane have scored more Premier League goals. As a wide forward rather than a central striker, Salah occupies a unique spot among the competition’s top 15 scorers.
He is also the only player to have won the PFA Player of the Year award three times, achieving his third in a season widely regarded as one of the best in history.
Salah recorded 47 goal involvements—the most by any player in a 38-game season—helping Liverpool secure the title under Arne Slot. His goals and assists contributed 38 points to the team.
Over the nine years since joining Liverpool in 2017, his impact in the Premier League has been unmatched.
Salah leads in goals, assists, shots, open-play chances created, and touches in the opposition box, making him the competition’s outstanding scorer and creator.
The gap between Salah and his peers in many of these categories is significant. His combined total of 281 goals and assists is more than 100 ahead of the next-highest player, Heung-Min Son. He also leads by a wide margin in shots and touches in the box.
Salah’s extraordinary talent is complemented by his durability. Since the 2017/18 season, only Jordan Pickford and James Tarkowski have made more Premier League appearances than his 310. His consistency is a product of his remarkable work ethic.
While Liverpool have occasionally slipped from the top of the Premier League over the past nine years, Salah’s personal output remained consistent until this season.
Even in his least productive campaign for goals and assists, in 2020/21, his combined total of 27 ranked third across the division behind Kane and Bruno Fernandes. He was also Liverpool’s only representative in that season’s PFA Team of the Year.
His managers have played a role too. Klopp maximised Salah’s success by moving Sadio Mane to the left to position him on the right-hand side of Liverpool’s attack and building the team around him. Slot reduced his off-the-ball duties to boost his influence in the final third last season.
Few expected that the contract he signed in the penultimate month of last season would be shortened by a year. But Salah has set such high standards that any decline, when it came, was immediately noticeable.
The drop has been sharp. Salah has also been affected by changes around him, including the departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold, whose service he valued. Age has played a role too, as Salah is just three months shy of his 34th birthday.
Initially, it seemed he might not receive the farewell he deserved after tensions with Slot over his reduced role in the first half of the season.
However, Salah’s reintegration after the Africa Cup of Nations offered him a chance to finish on a high. After nine years in which he dominated the league, he transformed Liverpool’s fortunes and secured his path to greatness.
