Why is it only the big six – aside from Liverpool – who have all-time top scorers who played in the past decade?Last Sunday, amid the gleeful chaos of the 7-0 win over Manchester United, Mohamed Salah became Liverpool’s leading scorer in the Premier League. There is always a slight caution about such statistics – football didn’t begin in 1992, you know – but three decades on the Premier League serves as a useful shorthand for the modern era. But what is perhaps more striking is that Salah is not Liverpool’s all‑time leading scorer. That record still belongs to Ian Rush and that makes Liverpool unique among the big six clubs.Arsenal’s leading all-time scorer is Thierry Henry. Chelsea’s is Frank...
Colombian’s form, pace and freshness mean he deserves to start Liverpool’s Champions League final with Salah and ManéLiverpool v Real Madrid will be decided by the finest margins, so it is good news that Jürgen Klopp has one of the finest forward lines in Europe available to him. Whichever combination he picks would be top-class but I think he will select a front three of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mané and Luis Díaz.Salah has unfinished business after being forced off early on with a shoulder injury the last time these teams met in a Champions League final in 2018. That will be a powerful influence on a player who, after a long season, needs to find a last bit of energy...
We select a few contenders for the Premier League’s player of the season – and invite you to have your sayIn curling his first goal of the season beyond the outstretched arm of the Norwich goalkeeper Tim Krul, Salah became the first player to score in the opening game of five consecutive Premier League campaigns. At the time he could have had no idea that, on the final day of the campaign, Liverpool would have already won two domestic cups, booked their place in the Champions League final and still be in contention for the title. Continue reading...
The role of Phil Foden, the space afforded to Trent Alexander-Arnold and the struggle to control the wings could all be vitalNo manager has beaten Pep Guardiola as often as Jürgen Klopp, although the balance is swinging the Manchester City manager’s way, with one defeat in nine meetings since the Champions League quarter-finals of April 2018. Theirs is one of the great rivalries, a meeting of two coaches who have done more than anybody else to shape the tactical landscape of modern football. But how might they set up on Sunday and where is the game between Liverpool and their Premier League title rivals likely to be won and lost? Continue reading...
Calculating the value of Liverpool’s attacking duo is impossible, but they are certainly better together than apartNaturally, the lasers lent the scene a certain pathos. As Mohamed Salah stepped up to take Egypt’s first penalty against Senegal on Tuesday night, the swarm of green laser beams dancing across his face were a reminder of football’s capacity to render even its greats temporarily powerless. Here was one of the biggest stars in the world’s biggest sport. But he couldn’t make his team win. He couldn’t get his country to a World Cup. And now he didn’t even have the use of his own eyes.“I was luckier,” Sadio Mané said afterwards. This was his second consecutive triumph over his Liverpool teammate, Senegal’s...