BUY WONDER
Here’s 37m reasons why Salah is the best transfer of the summer
LIVERPOOL were told they had paid over the odds for Mohamed Salah when they splashed out a club-record £36.9million to sign him in June.
But the Egyptian has proved the best buy of the summer.
The new Kop idol has eclipsed the costlier Romelu Lukaku, Alexandre Lacazette, Alvaro Morata and Bernardo Silva with his shooting accuracy, goals and assists, according to data courtesy of EA SPORTS.
Nearly two-thirds of his efforts on goal – 65 per cent – have been on target and he has seven goals and two assists in his first 11 Premier League games.
His stats in all competitions are even more impressive – 12 goals and three assists in his first 17 games for Liverpool.
Only ‘God’ himself, Robbie Fowler, scored more goals at the start of a Reds career.
Salah’s tally of 12 is more than Fernando Torres and Luis Suarez managed, even though both were out-and-out strikers.
By contrast Salah has started most games for Liverpool on the right flank.
His stats could easily be even better because he missed a penalty against Huddersfield a fortnight ago.
The 25-year-old, who managed just two goals in 19 appearances for Chelsea before moving to Roma for £12m, could finally plug the goalscoring hole in Liverpool’s attack created by Suarez’s departure in 2014. Suarez, now at Barcelona, amassed 31 goals during that phenomenal season and, to put that into persepctive, no Liverpool player has managed more than 14 in a campaign since.
Jurgen Klopp admits he is surprised by how well Salah has done in his first five months at Anfield. “I didn’t think he could score 12 goals in 17 games,” said the Reds boss. “I hope he’s not finished!”
Liverpool tried to sign Salah in January 2014 but he joined Chelsea, and Klopp revealed his scouting department urged him to move quickly at the end of last season to avoid missing out on him a second time.
“We watched Salah so often,” said the German. “The scouting department was really behind me and wanted to do it even earlier so that nobody could jump in.
“We were sure he could help us. Michael Edwards, Dave Fallows and Barry Hunter, they were really in my ear, saying ‘come on, Mo Salah is the solution!’
“When you have 20 players on the table, different players, it’s difficult to make an early decision, but I remember that we all were convinced about him.
“He’s a fantastic person, a nice lad, and a really good football player.”