Jamie Carragher has called Mohamed Salah “the signing of the season” and it’s difficult to argue with that claim.
Salah has been excellent since he joined Liverpool from Roma for £37m during the summer, surpassing the expectations of most with his performances and proving others who expected him to struggle very wrong.
But, according to George Elek on the latest Defending in Numbers podcast, Liverpool fans would be mistaken to think they can rely on the Egyptian to remain this prolific throughout the season.
Salah turned down a move to Anfield in January 2014, signing instead for Chelsea, but was rarely used by Jose Mourinho. Salah made just 13 appearances before joining Fiorentina on-loan and then Roma.
He scored 34 goals in 84 appearances for the Serie A club, but looks well on-course to smash that record with Liverpool. After just 18 games of his Anfield career, Salah has 14 goals and has scored more goals after 12 games for the club than any other player in history – taking the record from Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler.
Salah’s statistics make for very impressive reading. The 25-year-old has nine goals in 12 Premier League games, with those goals coming from 42 shots and just 26 shots on-target. Salah is more of a wide-forward than a traditional winger and has taken advantage of the space afforded by Roberto Firmino dropping deep. Of the Egyptian’s 26 shots on-target, 23 of them were taken inside the opposition penalty area and he’s scored with one of his three efforts from outside the box.
Unlike his teammate Philippe Coutinho, the Egyptian doesn’t let fly from distance and has been very efficient, and effective, with his efforts on goal. If Salah scores against Chelsea on Saturday, he’ll become the first Liverpool player since Luis Suarez in the 2013/14 season to score 15 goals in a season.
However, the Defending in Numbers podcast reckon that the Egyptian’s current scoring rate is “unsustainable.”
“I think that classically he’s been more wasteful,” said George Elek.
“He’s always scored goals, he did so at Roma for the last couple of seasons since leaving Chelsea. But, I think this is unsustainable. He’s never been as clinical as he is now, this fast start is great, but it’s unfair on him and probably unlikely that he’ll continue scoring at this rate. That’s not to say that he won’t continue to get into goal scoring positions, but he’ll probably revert to the mean again, and he probably will start missing chances. Right wingers generally don’t score at nearly a goal a game rate for a reason.”
George also said that if Salah continues to score at his current rate, he’ll end up with 28 or 29 goals at the end of the Premier League season.
Last season, Salah scored 15 goals in 31 Serie A games for Roma. Whether he continues scoring at his current rate or not, he looks certain to break that record before long.
Defending In Numbers is a new Deezer Originals football podcast. Listen to the latest episode and subscribe to the podcast on Deezer and iTunes.
