PRAYER OF THE YEAR
De Bruyne and Kane have got stiff competition for best player prize as Salah grabs goal No.30 - and another assist - without even hitting top gear
CONTRARY to popular belief, the Player Of The Year award is far from a foregone conclusion for Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne.
How can it be when Mo Salah continues to pile up the goals and the assists like this?
The electric Egyptian was nowhere near his best on a freezing afternoon on the south coast but he scored one and made the other for Roberto Firmino to lift Liverpool to within two points of second-placed Manchester United.
De Bruyne and Harry Kane are earning an avalanche of praise for their heroics for City and Spurs respectively.
Salah, however, has been directly involved in 29 goals this season – 22 strikes and seven assists.
He has scored even more than super-striker Sergio Aguero. In all competitions he now has 29.
In fact, Salah’s tally is the most by a Liverpool player in the Premier League in their debut season.
Firmino’s strike was his 20th of the season. He and Salah have 49 goals
Saints play like a side sipping tea while the house burns down
between them this season. It is the first time that Firmino has scored 20 goals in all competitions in a single campaign since he was at Hoffenheim in 2013-14.
Consider this too – Sadio Mane is currently struggling for form and has gone five games without a goal.
If he was anywhere near his best this could have been a massacre – Southampton were massively flattered by the scoreline.
This was supposed to be the game that Virgil van Dijk, who fought his way out of St Mary’s last month, was dreading. It was the game in which the Dutchman was expected to endure a cauldron of hate, fans who previously adored him ready to dish out dog’s abuse.
But by the end the chants directed at Van Dijk came from the travelling Liverpool supporters. “He left ‘cause you’re **** !” they sang as the Reds went through the last rites of this routine victory.
Anyone of a Saints persuasion should be worried by this performance. Last week’s win at West Brom was only their first in 12 matches.
Even manager Mauricio Pellegrino admitted afterwards that Liverpool didn’t need to do too much to win.
James Ward-Prowse and record £19million striker Guido Carrillo both blew good chances to score in the first half. Ward-Prowse sent a headed effort into the arms of Reds keeper Loris Karius when he should really have buried it.
Karius – enjoying his best game in a Liverpool shirt – then pushed a header from Carrillo over the bar, but shouldn’t have been given the opportunity to do so. Southampton in general played like a side calmly sipping tea while the house is burning around them.
To say that they appear to have no real appreciation of the trouble they are in is a massive understatement.
Swansea under Carlos Carvalhal are fighting for their lives to stay up.
Huddersfield and Newcastle, who both won yesterday, are also bang up for the battle. But Southampton appear to be sleepwalking their way to relegation.
That is not Liverpool’s problem right now. Jurgen Klopp’s men have rediscovered their form after following up their stunning recent win over Manchester City with dropped points against Swansea and Spurs.
Now their radar is refocused and Manchester United are in their sights, with a humdinger of a clash at Old Trafford on the horizon. With Salah and Firmino in their ranks Liverpool have every chance of catching them.