If delaying and running the clock down formed part of Liverpool’s negotiating strategy, the problem they have is that, with every game, Mohamed Salah further strengthens his hand in contract talks. There can be a reason to wait before committing to a player in his thirties, to see if there is evidence of decline. Not when the player is Salah.
He can seem the great exception, in this as in much else, the man who improves with time. While Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino languish in Saudi Arabia, lucratively rewarded for the reputations forged at Anfield, their old sidekick was spinning and shooting, scoring and starring in the Tyneside rain, equalling a personal best, setting a Premier League record. On an extraordinary night in Newcastle, there was something normal about how remarkable Salah’s performance was. Or there is something remarkable about how normal this feels from him.
In four weeks, he can discuss a summer free transfer to foreign clubs; among them is one that offered £150m for him in 2022, the Saudi Pro League club Al-Ittihad. “Give Mo the dough,” the banner on the Kop implores; if part of the calculation for Fenway Sports Group is not what he has done, but what he will do, then, halfway through his 33rd year, Salah is the most dynamic, devastating attacker in the Premier League.
The numbers have underpinned everything Liverpool have done in the last decade, including Salah’s recruitment. He has always been a blend of style and statistics, his innate elegance allied with an urgency to suggest someone has pressed fast forward, but a player of such potency that can be judged on the numbers alone.
Now he has scored in seven consecutive league games, equalling his longest run while accumulating nine goals in that time. By both providing and scoring against each of Manchester City and Newcastle, he has outstripped Wayne Rooney’s record for scoring and creating a goal in the same Premier League match: 37 times now, meaning that every seven games Salah starts in the division, on average, he will record a goal and an assist in one of those.
How long can he sustain it? Arne Slot avoids discussing contracts but hinted at the decision for Liverpool’s off-field powerbrokers. “It’s difficult for me to predict the long-term future but I can predict that he is in a very good place at the moment and in a very good team that provides him with good opportunities and he is able to do special things,” the head coach said.
Slot arrowed in on one of the Salah’s superpowers: a capacity to go from the fringes of a match to becoming the main man, from feeling uninspired to unstoppable. Arguably Lewis Hall, his immediate opponent at St James’ Park, produced a fine display. But when Salah is in the mood – and a classic Premier League match seemed to appeal to his competitive instincts – what could the left-back do?
As Slot noted: “What makes him even more special is that in the first 50 minutes you thought that he’s not playing his best game today and then comes up with 45 minutes of assists, two goals, hitting the bar, being a constant threat. That’s something not many players can do if they played the first 50 minutes like he did. That’s also what makes him special. If you just look at the goals his finishing is so clinical and shows he is a special player. But that’s what we all know.”
Yet when Slot took over, it was possible to argue that Salah’s time as a special player was being consigned to the past. He finished last season with first a rare injury and then a spell of 11 games that yielded just three goals, two of them penalties, and a touchline argument with Jurgen Klopp. Perhaps Slot has restored Salah to his best. Or maybe Salah has simply done that.
He made an immediate impression on the Dutchman. “I’ve seen many games of last season but it’s always difficult to judge a player if you’re not there,” Slot said. “But what I noticed from the start was how fit he was and ready he was to make it a very good season for him. He led by example from the first day onwards, pre-season where so many of his usual teammates weren’t there and to still be able to work so hard and train so hard, we all saw his quality in training session. It’s not a surprising thing for me that he does so well until now.”
Salah now tops the Premier League’s scoring charts and lies second for assists. In the division’s all-time standings, he is eighth – and of the top 20, only Thierry Henry and Sergio Aguero have played fewer games – as well as 11th for assists, with only David Beckham of the top 10 having made fewer appearances. It amounts to an astonishing level of productivity.
To borrow Salah’s logic from after the City game, perhaps this was his last match at St James’ Park. Newcastle may hope so; the rest of the Premier League, too. But if the situation is more complicated than the ludicrously simplistic takes that Liverpool should just pay Salah whatever he wants, over whatever length of contract he prefers, indicate, the epic, frenetic 3-3 draw at Newcastle was an illustration he may be irreplaceable. “Every time we need Mo Salah he scores a goal,” said Slot. “We are hoping and expecting he can continue this for a long time.” And if Salah is committed to extending his excellence into his mid-thirties, that also depends on the ever more important issue of his contract.