Depending on the severity of his hamstring injury, Mohamed Salah may have already played his final match, or have up to a maximum of five games left for Liverpool.
The ESPN website published a hypothetical report asking a pivotal question to answer the results if Liverpool did not sign the Egyptian national team striker and captain.
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Through an alternative scenario, the report reviews how one decision could have changed the course of an entire team and an entire football era.
The report’s authors pointed out that if you had to choose one person who embodies the modern era of Liverpool, it would be Salah.
The report attributed the main reason for this to the fact that he (Salah) was the only one who was always present.
Since joining from Roma in the 2017-2018 season, the Egyptian winger has played 26,124 minutes in the English Premier League, more than any other player except Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and his teammate James Tarkowski.
Among the strikers, Son Heung-min comes closest, but he has more than 5,000 minutes less than him.
Goals and assists for Salah
Salah has 191 goals and 92 assists, both numbers better than all players since the 2017-2018 season.
Salah’s total scoring contributions are 283, that is, 100 more than his closest competitor Son, who scored 183 during the same period.
Salah’s contributions averaged 31 goals and one assist in each of his nine seasons in the league. During that period, only seven other players were able to reach this average even once.
The report stated that it is difficult to imagine modern football without Salah, and it is almost impossible to imagine modern Liverpool without him.
The victory of the “computer” over the desire of “Klopp”
As had been whispered for years before the matter became public, Liverpool almost did not sign Mohamed Salah.
Coach Jurgen Klopp preferred to sign Julian Brandt, the Borussia Dortmund player, while the club management, which relied on data analysis, was convinced that Salah was the star of the future.
The report’s author believed that this moment explains why Liverpool continued to achieve this amount of success over the next six years.
Coach Klopp was one of the most famous figures in world football, and he wanted a young talent from his former club.
In most clubs, such hiring occurs automatically; But Klopp listened to a group of people who had never played professional football, “discussed them and was eventually convinced they were right,” the report said.
By signing Salah, Liverpool won everything, led by what is perhaps the best striker in the history of the English Premier League.
But what if Klopp insists on his opinion, or Salah decides not to return to England?
Neymar password
The plan was for Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Philippe Coutinho to play together.
But Paris Saint-Germain doubled the world record transfer fee to sign Neymar, rearranging the scales of European football and dealing a blow to Barcelona’s future plans.
With more than $200 million suddenly available, the Catalan club turned its attention to signing Coutinho, eventually paying $160 million to snatch him from Liverpool midway through the 2017-18 season.
Liverpool were happy to complete the deal, which paved the way for the signings of Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk and Fabinho, a trio that transformed a strong but unbalanced attacking team into one of the greatest teams of all time.
But the main reason for accepting Coutinho’s departure is that Salah was a superstar from the moment he arrived at Anfield.
What if Brandt was hired?
In the imagined reality, “If Liverpool had gone the route of signing Julian Brandt, the results would have been acceptable but not exceptional, as he would have turned into a young version of Adam Lallana, a multi-tasking squad player who does not have the ability to make a major difference,” according to the ESPN report.
In this scenario, holding on to Coutinho would have become an inevitable necessity, and losing Coutinho would not have been an option. Liverpool would not have scored enough goals with an attack consisting of Mane, Firmino and Brandt.
