2018/19 Season Report Card - Mohamed Salah

If we forget that the 2017/18 season ever happened, we’d probably be a lot more excited about what Mo did this year. Last year was always going to be difficult to live up to, but I’d kidded myself into thinking there was no reason he couldn’t break the 40 goal barrier again.

What he actually did was impressive enough in it’s own right, but viewed through the prism of the year before it seemed… well it seemed almost disappointing. That’s unfair (and ridiculous) when you think about it. I mean, he ended the season with a second successive Golden Boot!

I was a bit disappointed with him though, there's no point pretending I wasn't as I mentioned it in enough match reports throughout the season.

I think what has happened is that last year he overachieved and this year is closer to what we can expect in future. Don't get me wrong, I expect him to score more goals next year than he did this year, but he probably won’t ever be hitting 44 again as that is the lofty air usually only occupied by Messi and Ronaldo. 

In his first year with us virtually everything Mo hit ended up in the back of the net. He couldn’t miss, but this year he squandered loads of chances. More worryingly for me, there were times when he just didn’t look like himself. His body language wasn’t right, he wasn’t smiling and he generally just seemed like he had the hump over something.

He hit a hat-trick at Bournemouth but didn’t celebrate, he just gave the stink eye to someone on the bench. I have no idea what that was about but it was weird. There was definitely something going on with him at that point. We may never know what, but that wasn't normal behaviour.

There was a spell during the season when the question everyone seemed to be asking was “what’s wrong with Mo Salah?”. In fairness to Mo that wouldn’t have even entered anyone’s head if he hadn’t scored 44 goals the previous year. We’d all be saying what a good season he was having.

He couldn't reach the ridiculous high bar he set the previous year, that's all. He was still jumping as high as anyone else though.

It’s a cliché but he really was a victim of his own success, not only in terms of the increased expectations last year brought, but also in the way opponents would focus on stopping him. He definitely gets extra attention from opposition coaches now, but perhaps next year it might get easier again? Maybe Sadio will draw a bit more attention?

His role was often different this year too. He's played centre forward on a handful of occasions during the 44 goal season, but he was almost exclusively used on the right in a 4-3-3. Sometimes he'd be switched to a central role in the closing stages of games in which we had a lead, as it allowed him to use his speed on the break and Bobby was able to help out defensively on the flanks.

This year it changed. At least in the first half of the season it did. He spent a lot of time playing as the central striker in a 4-2-3-1. The results were mixed. He actually did alright there, but the team didn't look as fluent. The results were fine because we were keeping clean sheets and winning games, but the spectacular football of the previous season wasn't as frequent.

My hunch is that the formation change was as much about making Fabinho and Shaqiri comfortable until they were completely up to speed, as in the second half of the season it was usually back to the tried and trusted 4-3-3 with Mo on the right.

He started the season slowly, with just three goals in his first eleven games. He missed a lot of chances during that time so there was no reason to think this was a big deal. If he'd taken two or three of those nobody would have thought anything about it, but because he didn't, the general perception was he was struggling.

Then he caught fire. Five goals in his next four games, and overall seven in a nine game spell brought him up to double figures by the end of November. His form was streaky but his goal record was fine at that point.

Then he went through a spell when he just couldn't score. Eight games without a goal, which felt like an eternity because of how prolific he'd been up until that point. Two games without a goal seemed like a drought for Mo, and now he was going eight?

His form wasn't necessarily bad in that spell, but it was inconsistent. He was awful at Old Trafford and Goodison but in between he absolutely destroyed Watford at Anfield. He didn't score that night but what he did to the Watford left back was absolutely savage.

He had some really good games and some bad ones, but he just couldn't score. It was never going to last and he ended the goalless streak with a massively important goal at Southampton. One of the more under-rated big moments of the season that, as it felt like it could have massive title implications, and indeed it would have done if City hadn't reeled off 35 wins on the spin or whatever it was.

Statistically Mo apparently had a very good season. All that stuff about XG, chances created and the rest of it, he came out looking good from what I hear. Better than Mané some will tell you. My eyes tell me something different though.

There were a handful of games when Mo looked great. Like the Salah of the season before. Then there were a lot of games when he was fine. Not brilliant, but he contributed and was a threat. The thing that influenced my overall view though was just how many bad games he had. It was too many.

It didn't matter usually because the defence was so good we tended to get the result anyway, but in some of those costly draws we had he was terrible. He was absolute garbage away at United for the second season running, and he missed two sitters at Goodison.

Don't misunderstand me here, I'm not blaming Salah for us not winning the title. That would be unfair and it would also be stupid. What I would say though is if we had 2017/18 Mo and Bobby playing for us this season then we would have turned at least three of those draws into wins and ran away with the league.

As I said in the opening though, that was a tough act to follow. Sadio improved on 17/18 but he didn't hit the heights that Salah and Firmino had so it was easier for him. For Mo and Bobby, matching what they'd done the year before was always going to be difficult.

Mo gave us some great moments again. Not as many as the previous year, but he still provided some genuine highlights. The hat-trick at Bournemouth, the brilliant goal against Napoli, the assist for Mané in Munich, the length of the field run and goal away at Southampton, the list goes on.

He converted a penalty in the Champions League final to lay to rest the ghost of the previous year and he's currently banging them in for Egypt in the African Nations Cup.

He didn't make the shortlist for Player of the Year this season and he was also left out of the Team of the Year. That will have stung him, and knowing his competitive attitude I wouldn't bet against him ripping it up next year and running away with the Golden Boot again.

Rating 8.5 / 10

My gut tells me that rating might be too generous, but then I also can't shake the feeling that I'm judging him too harshly based on the ridiculously high standards he set last year. I'm all over the place on this one to be honest.

Best Moment: 

Seeing the (poor) penalty hit the back of the net in the final will probably have been his personal highlight, but for me it's a toss up between the Chelsea goal and the winner against Napoli at Anfield. I'll go with the Napoli goal simply because it proved to be more important. Without it we don't get number six.

Worst Moment:

Had we not turned things around against Barca I might have said the absolute sitter he missed in Camp Nou, which would have given us a vital away goal. Divock came to the rescue though, so I'll say missing two one v ones at Goodison was his lowest point of the season.

The Future?

Next season should be a big one for him. Not as prolific as 17/18 but more prolific than 18/19. 35 goals maybe? Hopefully he spends most of his time on the right and not through the centre. He's fine in either role, but the team generally looks much more balanced when he's on the right.