- Liverpool put three past Wolves on Saturday to briefly move into top spot and while Mohamed Salah was not among the goalscorers, his influence was paramount to the victory.
Mo Salah’s importance to Jurgen Klopp is measured in more than just goals.
That was highlighted twice over at Molineux. The little Egyptian didn’t find the net – but then he didn’t need to. He set up others to do it for him.
Salah’s remarkable record of either scoring or making an assist was stretched to 11 games as the red machine spluttered into life.
More often than not, when Klopp needs someone to make a difference, the 31-year-old has stepped up. Usually, it’s with a goal. Well, that’s happened 139 times so far.
But Salah now has 62 assists to his name too and is highly likely to make up significant ground on Kevin De Bruyne who sits atop that particular list, being one dozen ahead of his Merseyside rival.
The Belgian is a long-term injury casualty – which leaves the African a few months to close that gap still further. In all, the 31-year-old has over 200 goal involvements and, at club level, he is now second only to Steven Gerrard in the Premier League era.
Overall, he’s the second fastest to that total – with only Arsenal great Thierry Henry reaching that landmark in fewer games. It was two assists – in reality it should have been three – which turned this game on its head.
Wolves should have taken advantage of a horribly slow start – they were one goal to the good and should have added a second when Matheus Cunha made a hash of a far-post header. It was the kind of chance strikers dream about.
But the Brazilian fluffed his lines. Salah fired across goal for Cody Gakpo to level and then played a delicious elongated one-two with Andy Robertson to find the killer second.
He actually set up Harvey Elliott for the third – the midfielder fired home via a deflection which has ruled it out as yet another assist. Which was a shame for both concerned.
Elliott said: “We see it week in, week out with Mo. He’s unbelievable. Not only does he have the finishing ability that everybody sees, he’s also the same with his creativity.
“That’s why he’s always in the team, week in, week out. You can always count on him. If it goes down as my goal, he’s supplied three assists.
“His creativity is out of this world and I don’t think it’s appreciated by people as much as it should be. It’s not hard to see the quality player and why he’s one of the best in the world.
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