How Salah's genius sets him apart as the league's best player and a Liverpool great

As Mohamed Salah received the ball in the 75th minute of Sunday’s match, he had his back to goal and three Manchester City players within a 10-yard radius. A snapshot of that moment makes it look virtually impossible for the Egyptian to do much, let alone score. He would surely be crowded out.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

What followed was simply genius. There’s no more accurate description. Jurgen Klopp was right to say it was up there with anything Lionel Messi can produce. It was a privilege to witness. Klopp was immediately aware of how special it was. “This goal will be talked about in 60, 70 years’ time.”

The Liverpool manager added that Salah had scored similarly against Tottenham Hotspur and Napoli.

Whatever about the distant future or recent past, though, there’s the hugely impressive present. It’s true Salah hadn’t scored a goal like that for a while, but it’s impossible to escape the feeling he has been building up to it. After a good summer’s break that refreshed him, he currently has nine goals from nine games. It is his best spell of form since April 2018, a period at the end of that first season at Anfield when he initially went on to another level as a player.

Runs like this are when stars are pushing the very boundaries of their talent, and they are on a plane of performance that means special feats start following. That’s what this goal was, not to mention the Messi-like run to set up Sadio Mane. It is Salah so assured with his ability that he feels he can try anything and it will come off. It usually does.

It may well have made him the best player in the Premier League again – and one of the best in the world.

This isn’t to say Salah has been off form over the past few years. It instead sometimes seems like he is so consistent that his contributions are often taken for granted. He hasn’t just kept scoring regularly for Liverpool. He’s kept scoring crucial goals, equalisers and match-winners.