Mohamed Salah fever is currently sweeping through the red half of Liverpool, with the international break giving everyone time to reflect on the forward’s current form.
Salah was the Reds’ stand-out player in their dramatic 2-2 draw against Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday.
His assist for Sadio Mane’s opener and outrageous skill to score the second for Jurgen Klopp’s side has been followed by much debate about his standing in the game.
“The second goal, only the best players in the world score goals like this,” said Klopp post-match. “This club never forget these things so people will talk about this goal for a long time and in 50 or 60 years’ time they will remember this goal.”
Everyone was in broad agreement on that statement. The Premier League’s record goalscorer Alan Shearer hailed the jinking run and strike as “one of the best goals of the Premier League era”, while plenty of other pundits lined up to sing his praises.
Salah has scored nine goals in as many games so far this season, failing to score in just one of his appearances.
He averages 21 goals per season across the last three Premier League campaigns and found the net 32 times in his best ever campaign in 2017/18. Salah is now on 103 goals and 37 assists in 165 Premier League appearances altogether.
So how does the Egyptian compare to Liverpool’s previous strikers? And is he currently the world’s best?
Here are the thoughts of some people who have earned the right to give an informed opinion.
Jamie Carragher
Only one man has made more appearances for Liverpool for Carragher and the former defender is in little doubt about Salah’s quality.
“I don’t think there’s anyone playing better in the world, or in Europe in the Champions League in the past few weeks,” Carragher told Sky Sports at the weekend.
“His record this season has been absolutely outstanding. You can never question what he has done at Liverpool if at all, but right now is the sharpest I’ve ever seen him.”
He added: “Maybe I’ve missed someone, but he is world class. He is one of the greatest players to ever play for Liverpool.
“Liverpool have lost Roger Hunt in the past few days, one of the club’s greatest-ever goalscorers. Mo Salah is one of them, up there with Ian Rush, Roger Hunt.
“Salah goes in the greatest Liverpool 11, and think of some of the players they have had. There’s no doubt about it.”
Michael Owen
Former Liverpool striker believes Salah is one of the best strikers in the world, but when it comes to the greatest one-off Premier League season in the famous red shirt, Luis Suarez takes the crown.
Owen pointed to the 2013/14 season under Brendan Rodgers when Suarez provided 31 goals and 17 assists as the Reds narrowly missed out on the Premier League title.
“The season Luis Suarez played under Brendan Rodgers…I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, as a one-off season, he was unbelievable,” Owen said on BT Sport.
Rio Ferdinand then argued that the most important thing was that Salah’s performances helped Liverpool win the title in 2019/20, whereas Suarez failed to get his hands on the trophy.
Owen added: “But he [Suarez] was doing that, they were a slip away. He was at the sharp end of the game.
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“Just because you win the league, we’ve played with players who have six or seven medals in their pocket – they’re not a patch on Steven Gerrard or Luis Suarez.
“We’re splitting hairs in terms of how good the players are. As a one-off season, obviously he’s been doing it for four years now Mo Salah, we’re talking about one of the greatest players in the world.
“But your question was in a one-off season. That one that Suarez or any of the four that Mo Salah has had…there’s no comparison.”
Glen Johnson
Ex-Liverpool defender Johnson made a similar point to Owen and having played alongside Suarez, he also praised the Uruguayan goal machine.
“I played with Fernando Torres, Luis Suárez and Steven Gerrard, so it’s hard for me to look past players such as them, but if you have any of those players playing in your team then you’re doing something right,” he told Bettingodds.com .
“Mo deserves all the credit he’s getting as he’s a goal machine and he works his socks off. He’s bounced back really well from his time at Chelsea so he deserves all the credit that comes his way.
“If I had to choose who Liverpool’s best player of the Premier League era is then I’d have to go with Luis Suárez.
“The reason why is because I knew him and I knew what he was capable of doing. Unfortunately I only get to see Mohamed Salah at the weekend like everybody else.
“I don’t know what he’s like in training, but from what I see during his games then I imagine he’s an absolute workhorse.”
Dean Saunders
Saunders gave his opinion of Salah before his outstanding performance in the Man City game, but the former Reds striker still rated him as better than Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.
“Right now, as we speak, who's better than him?" he said on talkSPORT.
“Eight goals in eight games from right-wing, he's not playing down the middle. He just looks unstoppable.
“There's Messi and Ronaldo, who are on their own, but right now they're not as good as Salah."
Saunders was then asked whether he would take Salah or Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo, to which he responded: “Right now, Salah.
"It's easy to say Ronaldo, but right now Salah looks like he's going to score every week."
Steven Gerrard
Liverpool’s former captain is another huge fan of Salah. And while he’s too busy managing Rangers these days to express his fondness for him, he did so back in April 2018 when Salah was on fire.
After scoring his 42nd and 43rd goals of the 2017/18 season in the 5-2 win over Roma at Anfield in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final clash, Gerrard explained his thoughts on Salah.
"He's in the form of his life," Gerrard said on BT Sport.
"It's difficult to compare him to your [Cristiano] Ronaldos and [Lionel] Messis because they've done it for so long and they've been consistent year in, year out.
“But without a shadow of a doubt he's the best player on the planet right now."
John Aldridge
Aldridge knows a thing or two about goalscoring, having plundered 474 in 882 games between 1979 and 1998 for five different clubs.
He scored 63 of those in 104 appearances for Liverpool and has frequently spoken of his admiration for Salah over the past few years.
After Liverpool’s 3-1 win over Arsenal on August 24, 2019 - in which Salah scored twice - Aldridge used his Liverpool Echo column to make the case for Salah’s standing.
“He has to be top five in the world, he just has to be,” he wrote. “And as a Liverpool supporter, you just cross your fingers and hope he doesn’t get injured.
“For Mo and the front three as a whole, they are so difficult to keep out the game when they are on song. Salah looks hungry for more and I think winning the European Cup has helped him and the whole team with that.”
