ALL HAIL PREMIER LEAGUE’S MESSI
But not yet an Anfield legend
IT WAS so cold at Anfield on Saturday that the wind felt as if it was slicing through you. Usually, with three points comfortably secured, Liverpool supporters would have made early darts for the exit.
Saturday, though, was different.
This famous old ground had witnessed something out of the ordinary and a snapshot at the final whistle proved it, as a number of fans in the Main Stand dashed towards the tunnel. Mobile phones were at the ready to capture the moment for posterity.
Mohamed Salah had produced an ‘I was there’ performance; the Egyptian’s balletic grace and assassin’s touch left mouths open, had his manager and team-mates reaching for superlatives, and ensured the club’s statistician spent the second half with his head buried in history books.
These kind of displays do not come along very often. We live in an age when people regard something good as being ‘great’ and the phrase ‘legend’ is horribly and liberally tossed around, so it is difficult to find the words to do justice accurately to what Salah did to Watford.
But, be under no illusion, this guaranteed him entry to Anfield’s pantheon, comparable with John Barnes ( against Queens Park Rangers, October 1987), Steven Gerrard (Olympiacos, December 2004), Robbie Fowler (Fulham, October 1993) and Luis Suarez (Norwich, December 2013).
Older generations would include Ian Rush (Luton, October 1983) and, further back, Roger Hunt, whose fourth goal in a 6-1 thrashing of Stoke City on Boxing Day in 1963 prompted the Kop, according to reports, to improvise The Beatles and sing: ‘We love you, yeah, yeah, yeah!’
It is not hyperbole to say Salah belongs in such exalted company. He has 36 goals for the campaign, the fifth highest personal haul in Liverpool’s 125year history.
With a minimum of nine games to go, he is odds-on to join Rush and Hunt, the only men to have hit 40 in a season.
Salah’s numbers are eyepopping but there is much more. Numbers alone wouldn’t make 50,000 fans stay out in a blizzard. It is his magnetic close control and the ability to dribble as if being guided by a joystick. Each time the ball arrives at his feet, there is a hum of anticipation. Magic beckons.
Goal No 1 in this 5-0 slaying was all the evidence you need. He did to Miguel Britos — teasing and teasing before dumping him on his backside — what Lionel Messi did to Bayern Munich’s Jerome Boateng in a Champions League semi-final three years ago. ‘Salah is not the same as Messi,’ Watford manager Javi Gracia, who has experience of managing in La Liga against Barcelona’s little genius, explained.
‘But in this moment, yes they are on the same level. They are different types of forwards, but both are equally dangerous. You can do everything right in your defence, and in one moment you are lost.
‘Players like Messi and Salah, they make decisions, and they decide games.
‘It doesn’t matter about your shape, your plan, or your work. A player like that can change it in an instant. That is what happened with Salah.’
After four minutes, it was clear Salah was in the mood. He had already gone close before scoring, then followed with a free-kick and a corner that could have brought goals, too. His second — superbly created by Andrew Robertson — was clinical but the hat-trick strike brought the fantasy.
It was beautiful mayhem. There were five yellow shirts swarming around him like angry wasps, but
with a deft touch and a shift of the hips he sent Britos, Sebastian Prodl and Adrian Mariappa sliding one way and then the other before threading his finish past Orestis Karnezis.
‘He has been unbelievable,’ said Jordan Henderson, the Liverpool captain. ‘Absolutely unbelievable. He is doing it every week, without fail. We all signed his ball after the game. I just kept it simple and wrote, “Well done, superstar”.’
For that is what Salah is becoming. If Liverpool have any sense, they will be working on improving his £90,000-a-week wages, putting together the kind of package that will keep him on Merseyside and reflect the trajectory his career is taking. It would be madness if they are not.
Liverpool need to keep this icon and — more than anything — he needs to lead the club into a period that sees them winning trophies again.
They are on the cusp of becoming one of Europe’s finest sides and their front three — alongside Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane — is as good as anything around the continent.
‘Mo does the hardest part of the game, which is putting the ball away,’ said Henderson.
‘If we work as hard as we can, Mo — or even Sadio and Bobby — are going to finish it. We had that with Luis. When you walk out, there are so many goals there for you. It’s a brilliant feeling.’
As always, manager Jurgen Klopp refused to go overboard in his praise and smiled wryly when revealing that Salah had only equalled a feat that he had himself accomplished playing for Mainz against Rot-Weiss Erfurt in a German second division game in August 1991.
‘There were a few nice goals,’ he said. ‘But I didn’t take the match ball. They only had one.’
Klopp did, though, recognise that, in Salah, Liverpool have someone special.
‘We will not treat him like, “You don’t have to train, Mo — just come on Saturday and we’ll see you at Anfield”,’ said Klopp. ‘He doesn’t want that.
‘He’s in the moment of his career but he knows there is a lot for him to come. He wants to learn. He wants to improve.’ And, ominously for Liverpool’s opponents, that means there could be more days like these.