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Liverpool’s procession to a 20th league title does not quite contradict the adage that success has many fathers but they certainly have been propelled by an exceptional season from Mohamed Salah.
Virgil van Dijk’s ever-presence and Arne Slot’s canny management will receive more than honourable mentions. However, it was Salah’s frightening rate of attacking production that was most responsible for Liverpool pulling clear of their rivals.
Sometimes simplistic analysis is all that is required: Liverpool won the league because they have a player who broke the record for goal involvements in a 38-game Premier League season, set by Thierry Henry at 44 in 2002-03. At the latest count, Salah’s tally stands at 46.
At an even more basic level, Salah’s availability has also been a point of difference in the title race. Like Van Dijk, the Egyptian has started every single league game and is on course to comfortably clear 3,000 minutes. Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka has started just 17 games and will struggle to reach 2,000 minutes. Phil Foden, last season’s Footballer of the Year, has started just 19 games for Manchester City, while their Ballon d’Or winner, Rodri, has been injured since September.
Maintaining this clean bill of health for the next two years will be a priority for Liverpool’s now vaunted injury-prevention experts. These are the numbers behind Salah’s dominant campaign.
As things stand, Salah has been involved in 58 per cent of Liverpool’s league goals this season. When we compare this output to some legendary individual seasons in title-winning teams, only Alan Shearer with Blackburn Rovers in 1994-95 can match Salah’s influence on Liverpool.
Salah has been involved in a higher percentage of his team’s goals than: Thierry Henry with Arsenal’s “Invincibles” in 2003-04, Cristiano Ronaldo with Manchester United in 2007-08, Didier Drogba with Chelsea in 2009-10, Sergio Agüero with Manchester City in 2011-12 and Erling Haaland with City’s treble winners three seasons ago.
Salah is one away from Shearer’s tally of 47 goal involvements with Blackburn which was achieved when there was a 42-game Premier League season. With four games left for Liverpool, he is odds-on to surpass it. Though he did not win the league, Andy Cole’s 47 goal involvements with Newcastle United in 1993-94 is also within Salah’s sights (a tally also reached across 42 games).
Shearer, Henry, Ronaldo and Haaland pip Salah when it comes to the proportion of their team’s goals scored, but Salah’s assists are a key point of difference. Arsenal’s unbeaten title triumph was not actually Henry’s best season for goal involvements; that came in 2002-03, a record Salah has also beaten.
During Salah’s first few seasons at Liverpool, his primary function was to pierce defences with runs between left-back and left centre-back and finish moves. He did that brilliantly, scoring 32 league goals in his first season at Anfield.
That said, despite finishing with 10 assists that season, there were spells in matches when Salah was peripheral and even slightly detached from his team-mates and the game.
Like a cobra waiting to strike, this can be a characteristic of the great goalscorers but Salah’s contribution to general play could leave something to be desired.
Now, at almost 33, he has matured into a rounded attacker who can provide as well as score, whose left foot can be a paint brush as well as a scalpel.
Working as a Champions League pundit earlier in the season, Arsène Wenger said: “He has found a good balance between obsession to score goals and giving the ball. We had a period between him and [Sadio] Mané, there were tensions, because everybody tried to score without passing the ball.
“He understands that to be really great he has to contribute and he has done that really well.”
The top 10 players in the Premier League this season for goals and assists per 90 minutes are very nearly two mutually exclusive lists. Only one player features on both: Salah, and high up the rankings at that.
Using these scatter graphs, we can see just how far ahead of the competition Salah is when it comes to combining goal threat and creativity. Those bottom left provide little in the way of goals or assists. Those top left provide plenty of assists but few goals. Those bottom right score goals but produce few assists. Top right, where Salah stands alone, do both.
Goals and assists win games of course, but provide a superficial measure of a player’s performances. However, using expected goals and expected assists instead, Salah is still way out towards the top right of the scatter graph.
The only player who rivals Salah in this department, despite his form finding a trough in the last few months, is Chelsea’s Cole Palmer.
To provide a slight caveat to Salah’s season, nine of his Premier League goals have been penalties. That is a 100 per cent record from the spot, and penalties still need converting (Salah had missed two league penalties in each of the last two seasons).
Those penalties do account for a chunk of Salah’s expected goals output, which drops from 0.72 to 0.51 per 90 minutes when spot kicks are removed. That puts him behind Haaland, Alexander Isak and Nicolas Jackson. However, when we compare non-penalty expected goals with chances created, Salah is still towards the sweet spot in the top right of the scatter graph.
Another measure of Salah’s contribution to Liverpool’s team play is to look at attacking sequence involvements, which StatsPerform calculates by combining shots, chances created and involvement in build-up to shots. Salah now leads Palmer in this statistic, and as you would expect his shot tally makes up a significant proportion of his involvement. However, when it comes to build-up to shots, Salah is not far from specialist creators such as Bruno Fernandes and Alex Iwobi. He has actually created more chances than Fernandes.
When attacking sequence involvements are measured per 90 minutes, Kevin De Bruyne actually comes out on top although of course he has played significantly fewer minutes than Salah. The fact that Salah is rivalling the likes of De Bruyne and Palmer for chances created per 90 minutes though, is proof of his development.
Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold have exchanged 456 passes this season, Liverpool’s fourth-most frequent passing combination between two players. Alexander-Arnold has found Salah 256 times, the most common avenue to Liverpool’s best attacker by some distance, followed by Ibrahima Konaté, Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch.
Should, as expected, Alexander-Arnold join Real Madrid on a free transfer this summer, then replacing his connection with Salah promises to be one of the themes of Liverpool’s season in 2025-26. It is not surprising that the player who passes most to the right winger is the right-back and that will continue next season. These numbers cannot convey the timing, weight, shape and imagination of those Alexander-Arnold passes, though.
When it comes to chances created for Salah, Szoboszlai leads the way with 16. The Hungarian’s relationship with Salah has blossomed since Christmas. Luis Diaz has created 15 with Alexander-Arnold 13.
Liverpool’s most frequently played pass is Van Dijk to Andy Robertson, reflecting how opponents press Liverpool with arced runs from the left to try to prevent them playing down their right flank. However, pulling a team over to the left can expose them to a quick switch, something Van Dijk is a master at.
Salah is the beneficiary, and while everyone knows the service he enjoys and where it is likely to come from, stopping the Premier League’s best player has proved a thankless task.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Continue reading...
Virgil van Dijk’s ever-presence and Arne Slot’s canny management will receive more than honourable mentions. However, it was Salah’s frightening rate of attacking production that was most responsible for Liverpool pulling clear of their rivals.
Sometimes simplistic analysis is all that is required: Liverpool won the league because they have a player who broke the record for goal involvements in a 38-game Premier League season, set by Thierry Henry at 44 in 2002-03. At the latest count, Salah’s tally stands at 46.
At an even more basic level, Salah’s availability has also been a point of difference in the title race. Like Van Dijk, the Egyptian has started every single league game and is on course to comfortably clear 3,000 minutes. Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka has started just 17 games and will struggle to reach 2,000 minutes. Phil Foden, last season’s Footballer of the Year, has started just 19 games for Manchester City, while their Ballon d’Or winner, Rodri, has been injured since September.
Maintaining this clean bill of health for the next two years will be a priority for Liverpool’s now vaunted injury-prevention experts. These are the numbers behind Salah’s dominant campaign.
As things stand, Salah has been involved in 58 per cent of Liverpool’s league goals this season. When we compare this output to some legendary individual seasons in title-winning teams, only Alan Shearer with Blackburn Rovers in 1994-95 can match Salah’s influence on Liverpool.
Salah has been involved in a higher percentage of his team’s goals than: Thierry Henry with Arsenal’s “Invincibles” in 2003-04, Cristiano Ronaldo with Manchester United in 2007-08, Didier Drogba with Chelsea in 2009-10, Sergio Agüero with Manchester City in 2011-12 and Erling Haaland with City’s treble winners three seasons ago.
Salah is one away from Shearer’s tally of 47 goal involvements with Blackburn which was achieved when there was a 42-game Premier League season. With four games left for Liverpool, he is odds-on to surpass it. Though he did not win the league, Andy Cole’s 47 goal involvements with Newcastle United in 1993-94 is also within Salah’s sights (a tally also reached across 42 games).
Shearer, Henry, Ronaldo and Haaland pip Salah when it comes to the proportion of their team’s goals scored, but Salah’s assists are a key point of difference. Arsenal’s unbeaten title triumph was not actually Henry’s best season for goal involvements; that came in 2002-03, a record Salah has also beaten.
Salah combines goal threat and creativity like no one else
During Salah’s first few seasons at Liverpool, his primary function was to pierce defences with runs between left-back and left centre-back and finish moves. He did that brilliantly, scoring 32 league goals in his first season at Anfield.
That said, despite finishing with 10 assists that season, there were spells in matches when Salah was peripheral and even slightly detached from his team-mates and the game.
Like a cobra waiting to strike, this can be a characteristic of the great goalscorers but Salah’s contribution to general play could leave something to be desired.
Now, at almost 33, he has matured into a rounded attacker who can provide as well as score, whose left foot can be a paint brush as well as a scalpel.
Working as a Champions League pundit earlier in the season, Arsène Wenger said: “He has found a good balance between obsession to score goals and giving the ball. We had a period between him and [Sadio] Mané, there were tensions, because everybody tried to score without passing the ball.
“He understands that to be really great he has to contribute and he has done that really well.”
The top 10 players in the Premier League this season for goals and assists per 90 minutes are very nearly two mutually exclusive lists. Only one player features on both: Salah, and high up the rankings at that.
Using these scatter graphs, we can see just how far ahead of the competition Salah is when it comes to combining goal threat and creativity. Those bottom left provide little in the way of goals or assists. Those top left provide plenty of assists but few goals. Those bottom right score goals but produce few assists. Top right, where Salah stands alone, do both.
Goals and assists win games of course, but provide a superficial measure of a player’s performances. However, using expected goals and expected assists instead, Salah is still way out towards the top right of the scatter graph.
The only player who rivals Salah in this department, despite his form finding a trough in the last few months, is Chelsea’s Cole Palmer.
To provide a slight caveat to Salah’s season, nine of his Premier League goals have been penalties. That is a 100 per cent record from the spot, and penalties still need converting (Salah had missed two league penalties in each of the last two seasons).
Those penalties do account for a chunk of Salah’s expected goals output, which drops from 0.72 to 0.51 per 90 minutes when spot kicks are removed. That puts him behind Haaland, Alexander Isak and Nicolas Jackson. However, when we compare non-penalty expected goals with chances created, Salah is still towards the sweet spot in the top right of the scatter graph.
Another measure of Salah’s contribution to Liverpool’s team play is to look at attacking sequence involvements, which StatsPerform calculates by combining shots, chances created and involvement in build-up to shots. Salah now leads Palmer in this statistic, and as you would expect his shot tally makes up a significant proportion of his involvement. However, when it comes to build-up to shots, Salah is not far from specialist creators such as Bruno Fernandes and Alex Iwobi. He has actually created more chances than Fernandes.
When attacking sequence involvements are measured per 90 minutes, Kevin De Bruyne actually comes out on top although of course he has played significantly fewer minutes than Salah. The fact that Salah is rivalling the likes of De Bruyne and Palmer for chances created per 90 minutes though, is proof of his development.
How Liverpool find Salah and the Alexander-Arnold link
Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold have exchanged 456 passes this season, Liverpool’s fourth-most frequent passing combination between two players. Alexander-Arnold has found Salah 256 times, the most common avenue to Liverpool’s best attacker by some distance, followed by Ibrahima Konaté, Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch.
Should, as expected, Alexander-Arnold join Real Madrid on a free transfer this summer, then replacing his connection with Salah promises to be one of the themes of Liverpool’s season in 2025-26. It is not surprising that the player who passes most to the right winger is the right-back and that will continue next season. These numbers cannot convey the timing, weight, shape and imagination of those Alexander-Arnold passes, though.
When it comes to chances created for Salah, Szoboszlai leads the way with 16. The Hungarian’s relationship with Salah has blossomed since Christmas. Luis Diaz has created 15 with Alexander-Arnold 13.
Liverpool’s most frequently played pass is Van Dijk to Andy Robertson, reflecting how opponents press Liverpool with arced runs from the left to try to prevent them playing down their right flank. However, pulling a team over to the left can expose them to a quick switch, something Van Dijk is a master at.
Salah is the beneficiary, and while everyone knows the service he enjoys and where it is likely to come from, stopping the Premier League’s best player has proved a thankless task.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Continue reading...
