Topic: Mohamed Salah - Best in the World *

[GreatEx]

If you put him on the pitch, there will be fire.

I'm normally pretty pragmatic on the "let their legs go on someone else's watch" philosophy, but with a new manager and no AFCON, and question marks over fitness and fit of other forwards, I would much rather keep him around.

[farawayred]

Emerson Royal had a mare, he still hasn't left his session with the psychiatrist. Salah was afforded so much space from midfield to their end.

[Knight]

He’ll get 10 goals and 10 assists next season too if we keep him. Which suggests we should! I’d not be giving him a new contract though.

[mullyred94]

Emerson Royal had a mare, he still hasn't left his session with the psychiatrist. Salah was afforded so much space from midfield to their end.

It’s the way spurs play, they over load the centre with there FBs are get caught narrow

Works well when they win the ball back high but can leave them Exposed also

[Zlen]

He’ll get 10 goals and 10 assists next season too if we keep him. Which suggests we should! I’d not be giving him a new contract though.

That is the one scenario we probably won’t see I think. Contract extension or sale - you can’t run a club by letting players like Salah leave for nothing.

Again, you can’t force him to go. Should be a shitshow summer of rumours and bullshit.

[Clayton Bigsby]

30 goals a season average since being here. His 7th season. That is unreal

[Clint Eastwood]

Should just stick him up top next season and see how that goes.

[Kalito]

Felt like pissing in the wind a few days ago trying to defend Mo after “the spat”. Some fickle folk really acted cuntishly on here

Aye.

His worst form since he's been here which was after a lengthy injury (which in between the injury period, he came on at Brentford in second half, took the piss out of them with a goal and assist and looking like he'd never been away).

"It's time".

[JC the Messiah]

Why wrong? If you were at the game you must have seem him with his head down pushing but getting easily out paced, or the foot races he gave up.

I watched him create chances (he could have easily had a hattrick), make some delightful passes, bag an assist and a goal (again), was part of a very successful press.

But yeah, he's shit.

[Redbonnie]

I watched him create chances (he could have easily had a hattrick), make some delightful passes, bag an assist and a goal (again), was part of a very successful press.

But yeah, he's shit.

I didn’t say he was shit I said he was slow and you said that was wrong …it wasn’t. 

[Knight]

That is the one scenario we probably won’t see I think. Contract extension or sale - you can’t run a club by letting players like Salah leave for nothing.

Again, you can’t force him to go. Should be a shitshow summer of rumours and bullshit.

We do it quite a bit and it's not really up to us as you say. We're probably not going to give him 3 more years at what he's currently on. He's probably going to want that sort of contract. We probably want one last season of his goals and assists, he probably wants the power of being a free agent to make more money. It's by far the most likely scenario I suspect.

[B0151?]

It was never a case of him being past it. It is just pure bad luck he got injured and then had a rocky patch of form during a crucial period. The lad is still comfortably our best player. Will help us challenge for the league again next season. If he was to go, I believe that would make the start of the new boss so much harder. Just my opinion, but if we want Slot to start off well, vital that he's here next season.

[smutchin]

Contract extension or sale - you can’t run a club by letting players like Salah leave for nothing.

There’s no way we’re selling our best player just so we can bring in some cash for his long-term replacement. His value as a Liverpool player next season far outweighs the benefits of selling him this summer, even if he leaves on a free next summer.

The only reason we’d sell him this summer is if he wants to leave.

[Dree]

It was never a case of him being past it. It is just pure bad luck he got injured and then had a rocky patch of form during a crucial period. The lad is still comfortably our best player. Will help us challenge for the league again next season. If he was to go, I believe that would make the start of the new boss so much harder. Just my opinion, but if we want Slot to start off well, vital that he's here next season.

He’s clearly lost the agility and some acceleration which was clear yesterday despite him having a great game. If we adapt he can stay for a couple of years if we make up the energy elsewhere.

[red1977]

18 league goals and 11 assists. Are there any players around that play outside right that we could buy better than a 31 year old Salah?. Would not surprise me if he isn’t to far off again next season if he plays the same role. Like the shout of moving him centrally as well. If the new manager likes wingers (with pace). Pace is the only thing Salah will definitely lose, the rest, no reason he can’t keep all that.

[terry_macss_perm]

18 league goals and 11 assists. Are there any players around that play outside right that we could buy better than a 31 year old Salah?. Would not surprise me if he isn’t to far off again next season if he plays the same role. Like the shout of moving him centrally as well. If the new manager likes wingers (with pace). Pace is the only thing Salah will definitely lose, the rest, no reason he can’t keep all that.

Five penalties in those 18 league goals? So Alexis Mac can take up that rôle. For £400,000 per week plus whatever transfer fee Mo might bring in, you would hope that we could find a forward who could make up the rest of the shortfall as well as being 7-10 years younger.

[Zlen]

Why not both?
Get a new player.
Keep Mo.
Win stuff.

[red1977]

Five penalties in those 18 league goals? So Alexis Mac can take up that rôle. For £400,000 per week plus whatever transfer fee Mo might bring in, you would hope that we could find a forward who could make up the rest of the shortfall as well as being 7-10 years younger.

Had a spell out though as well don’t forget. Those numbers would be higher. As it stands with the 5 penalties it’s 29 goal involvements from 28 games in the league from outside right. I just don’t see us improving on Salah. A younger player we can still sign by all means but we will struggle to replace him in my opinion because he is generally world class despite one minor slump following an ultra rare injury,

[terry_macss_perm]

Why not both?
Get a new player.
Keep Mo.
Win stuff.

Because we haven’t got unlimited funds. Passing up a big transfer fee and continuing to pay Mo the equivalent of three other players’ weekly wage is a cost we arguably can’t afford to pay when the squad needs investment to improve on this season’s outcome.

[mullyred94]

Because we haven’t got unlimited funds. Passing up a big transfer fee and continuing to pay Mo the equivalent of three other players’ weekly wage is a cost we arguably can’t afford to pay when the squad needs investment to improve on this season’s outcome.

How much would a player who will basically guarantee 25 if not 30 goal contribution in the league cost?

And what is the huge transfer fee?

Going to be virtually impossible to replace Mo Salah ( even at current output )

[B0151?]

Imagine the first thing you do to your new manager after Klopp is tell them they will be having to replace Salah. Some people must really want Slot to fail...

The knock on effect of that going wrong could do more damage to us than losing out on any fee this year. Let's give Slot the best possible chance to succeed and keep our best players.

If Darwin had scored 20+ this season, maybe it becomes a more feasible conversation perhaps. But I think it's just too much of a risk for new boss to deprive him of our main goalscorer. He hasn't had best of season in front of goal but he's still been so quality, racked them assists up as well as good goal return.

[smutchin]

Because we haven’t got unlimited funds. Passing up a big transfer fee and continuing to pay Mo the equivalent of three other players’ weekly wage is a cost we arguably can’t afford to pay when the squad needs investment to improve on this season’s outcome.

No, we don't have unlimited funds but nor are we any longer in a position where we have to sell to buy. We've let some big names go for free in recent years - Firmino, Gini were both first-team regulars at the time they left. Then there's Keita, Ox, Milner, Div, Lallana, Clyne... And not getting a fee for any of those didn't stop us buying Nunez for a hefty fee or bidding £100m+ for Caicedo.

We're never going to compete financially with the cheats, but that's because they're cheats.

The only thing we'll win by selling Mo is the net spend league. And if that's the height of your ambitions, you're looking at the game the wrong way.

[terry_macss_perm]

Imagine the first thing you do to your new manager after Klopp is tell them they will be having to replace Salah. Some people must really want Slot to fail...

The knock on effect of that going wrong could do more damage to us than losing out on any fee this year. Let's give Slot the best possible chance to succeed and keep our best players.

If Darwin had scored 20+ this season, maybe it becomes a more feasible conversation perhaps. But I think it's just too much of a risk for new boss to deprive him of our main goalscorer. He hasn't had best of season in front of goal but he's still been so quality, racked them assists up as well as good goal return.

Slot might look at how Mo reacts to not being in the starting XI and wonder how he handles that going forward. And also how he would react if Slot were to take penalty duties from him in favour of a player or players with a better conversion rate.

As for the Mo/Darwin numbers 2023/24 (excluding penalties)…

Nunez 17 goals + 13 assists
Salah 18 goals + 13 assists

[dutchkop]

Why not both?
Get a new player.
Keep Mo.
Win stuff.

sounds too sensible... but the right kind of message..

I would extend Virgil, Trent and even Mo if we could.

[JC the Messiah]

I didn’t say he was shit I said he was slow and you said that was wrong …it wasn’t. 

He wasn't slow either

[smutchin]

Rather than relying on individual subjective impressions, is there any hard data available about his speed? Both currently and how it compares to earlier years?

I can believe he might be a bit slower than he was at 25 but 31 isn’t that old for an elite athlete these days so I’d be surprised if he’s really slowed down significantly, unless injuries are taking their toll.

For some context, Van de Ven is supposedly the fastest player in the league this season so it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise if he was beating Mo for pace yesterday. The great thing about Mo is that he has many other qualities apart from pure speed, and these were very much on display yesterday.

[SamLad]

about his speed recently - maybe he hasn't recovered completely from the hammy problem?

[terry_macss_perm]

Rather than relying on individual subjective impressions, is there any hard data available about his speed? Both currently and how it compares to earlier years?

I can believe he might be a bit slower than he was at 25 but 31 isn’t that old for an elite athlete these days so I’d be surprised if he’s really slowed down significantly, unless injuries are taking their toll.

For some context, Van de Ven is supposedly the fastest player in the league this season so it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise if he was beating Mo for pace yesterday. The great thing about Mo is that he has many other qualities apart from pure speed, and these were very much on display yesterday.

In practical terms, a comparison between several seasons’ worth of attempted/successful take-ons would maybe tell more of a story rather than one-off calculations of straight-line speed on a particular day.

[Knight]

In practical terms, a comparison between several seasons’ worth of attempted/successful take-ons would maybe tell more of a story rather than one-off calculations of straight-line speed on a particular day.

I looked at this a while back and it was hard to get a sense from attempted dribbles. What I didn't check was successful take-ons and his success % has dropped significantly. In 17/18 it was up at 62% and has never been as high again (although it hit 60% in 19/20). But this season it's all the way down to 33.8 and it's dropped every season since 19/20. For me the eye test is very obvious, he's just not as explosive as he used to be but he's almost certainly more creative with his passing - this season his passes into the box, key passes, progressive passing and xAG are all way up on what they've ever been for us. And the trend over his time here is, I reckon, up, although it's not linear.

[JC the Messiah]

I looked at this a while back and it was hard to get a sense from attempted dribbles. What I didn't check was successful take-ons and his success % has dropped significantly. In 17/18 it was up at 62% and has never been as high again (although it hit 60% in 19/20). But this season it's all the way down to 33.8 and it's dropped every season since 19/20. For me the eye test is very obvious, he's just not as explosive as he used to be but he's almost certainly more creative with his passing - this season his passes into the box, key passes, progressive passing and xAG are all way up on what they've ever been for us. And the trend over his time here is, I reckon, up, although it's not linear.

Wonder how much of that is down to him actively making a conscious decision to change, a change on his physical capabilities, if it's a result of Klopp telling him to play a different role, or if it's a result of other players around him playing a different role... 

[Knight]

Wonder how much of that is down to him actively making a conscious decision to change, a change on his physical capabilities, if it's a result of Klopp telling him to play a different role, or if it's a result of other players around him playing a different role...

Assuming we can trust the numbers are accurate (I’ve looked at fbref and I don’t know if they accurately assess completed dribbles) the fact that when he tries he succeeds less is quite telling. hes probably trying less (attempted dribbles are certainly down this season but the trend is less obvious) but he’s also trying and failing more. In 17/18 and 19/20 he succeeded 60% + of the times he tried to dribble. It’s basically halved these days so that when he tries he mostly fails.

[smutchin]

Interesting reading, thanks.

[bobadicious]

Should just stick him up top next season and see how that goes.

I'd like to see this