Mohamed Salah vs Luiz Suarez: Who’ll be remembered as Liverpool’s greatest forward?
The topic of who the best ever single Premier League campaign belongs to is a divisive one.
Some believe Thierry Henry’s 2002/03 campaign tops the pile after he scored 24 goals and racked up 20 assists. Others feel Cristiano Ronaldo’s 31-goal haul during the 2007/08 season is yet to be beaten.
Erling Haaland put himself in the conversation with 36 goals and eight assists across 35 appearances during his debut campaign in England.
Luis Suarez’s 2013/14 season needs to be considered after the Liverpool striker scored 31 goals and chipped in with 13 assists across 33 appearances. Then there’s Mohamed Salah. The former Roma man ran riot during his first season with the Reds, scoring 32 goals and assisting on 10 occasions across his 36 outings.
There’s always that one standout season. Yet Salah looks set to have a second.
The three-time Golden Boot winner is currently running riot in the Premier League. He’s already on 30 goal involvements made up of 17 goals and 13 assists in just 18 appearances. No other player is yet to break the 20 goal involvement barrier.
Salah finished the month of December with 14 goal involvements, eclipsing the 13 Suarez racked up in December 2013. The Liverpool No.11 has scored or assisted in 11 successive English top-flight matches. In fact, he’s only failed to register a goal involvement in two of his 18 appearances this term in the Premier League.
He’s on course for an all-timer. Another one.
And this one might finally settle the debate among Liverpool fans over whose season was the better.
Suarez carried that Liverpool team to a title challenge. It had no right to compete but his goals papered over a lot of cracks. He missed the opening five games of the season due to suspension and then failed to register a goal or an assist in 10 of his 33 appearances. The Uruguayan was suspended for the first game against Manchester United and failed to score against Arsenal, Manchester City or Chelsea in the first half of the season. Liverpool lost all three of those fixtures.
What also helped his cause was the fact the Reds didn’t have any European football as a distraction. They could focus solely on the Premier League and it allowed a relentless Suarez to terrorise teams on a weekly basis. He could put all of his efforts into those weekend games.
In the second half of the campaign, he assisted in wins over Manchester City and Arsenal and scored in the victory at Old Trafford. So, he did play his part in the big games but he was, if truth be told, more of a flat track bully.
Many fans believe this is the superior season because of the 43 goal involvements in 33 games, coupled with the fact he was playing in such an inferior team. He had Raheem Sterling, Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge alongside him in attack, and an aging Steven Gerrard was anchoring the midfield, but the rest of the team wouldn’t have looked out of place battling it out for a mid-table club.
They’re blinded by the numbers.
For example, six of his goal involvements arrived against Norwich City and seven were in wins over Cardiff City. He also chipped in with four against West Brom. That is a combined 17 goal involvements against three of the bottom four. Whereas he had just two assists against three of the top four.
In truth, Salah’s 2017/18 campaign was probably better than Suarez’s 2013/14 even though he only chipped in with five goals against three of the top four that season.
This season, he’s on another level entirely.
There’s still 20 games to play and yet he has three goal involvements against Manchester United, two against Chelsea and Manchester City, four against Spurs and a goal against Arsenal. He’s scored or assisted in 16 of his 18 appearances. He has multiple goal involvements in eight of these games which is already a Premier League record.
Salah is bullying everyone and anyone, home and away.
He’s doing this while also bossing teams in the Champions League. He has six goal involvements in six outings in Europe’s premier club competition.
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Salah’s WhoScored average rating of 8.00 is the highest of his career in the Premier League. At his current rate, he’s a shoo-in to finally eclipse Thierry Henry’s record of 20+ goals and 20+ assists in a single campaign. This weekend, he faces his favourite opponent in Manchester United. He’s scored 15 times in 16 appearances against the Red Devils. You wouldn’t bet against him adding to that on Sunday.
He’s doing all of this at the grand old age of 32 when his powers are supposed to be on the wane amid uncertainty over his future with his current deal coming to an end in six months’ time.
The record-breaker could be a record-setter this term. If he does it, the debate ends. He’s the greatest of all time, not just for Liverpool.
