2018/19 Season Report Card - Mohamed Salah

[tlw content]

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.

 

 

This is just a teaser, click to view the full article

 

Please note, 'Season Report Cards' are only be available to TLW subscribers. Subscriptions are just £2 per month and can be purchased here.

[aws]

I think he puts too much pressure on himself. I think he'll score more next season now he (hopefully) doesn't feel he has to match the 44 goals. 

[Scott_M]

A fair assessment.

[dave u]

1 hour ago, aws said:

I think he puts too much pressure on himself. I think he'll score more next season now he (hopefully) doesn't feel he has to match the 44 goals. 

Could be. That might explain him having a face like a smacked arse early in the season.

[LFC 6 Times]

He had two spells where his confidence was shot, early on in the season after first international break and then the 5-6 before burying against Southampton, a what a fucking goal it was too, one of my favourite moments of the season. He’s just a phenomenal player, 27 goals and you can genuinely feel and say he underperformed speaks volumes of his quality. 30+ next year.

[Butch]

As said he's put pressure on himself. He's been fantastic though and he's been like a lunatic defending and chasing down the opposition. 

Scored some fantastic goals too. 

I've got a feeling he'll be even better next season.

Goal against Watford was magical. The touch with his right before hitting it with his left fooling the defence was so special. 

 

[deiseach]

This is the first one where I didn't predict your score out of 10, seemed like a 7 to me. And I think it was a 7. As LFC 6 Times points out, he had two periods during the season where he was gash. Hopefully now he has had his hands on Big Ears he'll not suffer any bouts of a lack of confidence.

 

Looking at that Southampton goal above, the way he made it look so easy, the way the ball stuck to his foot like Velcro when a couple of inches of loss of control would have seen him dispossessed, then passed it into the net with several feet to spare between the goalie and the post...in what percentile are these guys among everyone who has played the game? Seriously. If (say) a billion men alive today have played football in some capacity and Salah is in the top 1,000 (I'm including the likes of Kenny Dalglish and Diego Maradona in that 1,000), that makes him, and forgive my dodgy maths, one of the 0.0001%? What a player.

[Grinch]

Top goalscorer in the league,  most creative player we have too

 

Started the season struggling with injury so the slow start was to be expected.   You also had the idiots who were putting him up there with Messi and Ronaldo which did no favours. 

[3 Stacks]

His case is a little odd. I think the way his game has developed, he's clearly become a better central striker than wide forward, but at the same time, 4-3-3 is our bread and butter formation.

 

To me, he's now squarely in the Cristiano Ronaldo penalty box player mould and I'd like to see us continue to take some pressure off him in the buildup next season because I think some teams figured him out to some extent when he played wide.

[Mikhail]

I agree with your assessment Dave compared to last season this has not been the same Salah I think he may have started to believe his own hype a bit too much because at certain points he was a lot less selfless than last season by taking shots when usually he would have passed.

 

I remember his goal against Southampton and how pissed I was when instead of passing to Bobby he took the shot but then it went in and it shows how much I know.

 

Taking that into account while his level may have dropped he was still the Golden Boot winner and to me it's a farce that Salah was not nominated for player of the year and the media made such a massive noise about Sterling's season when Salah basically had identical stats and Salah actually ended the season better than Sterling... 

 

He had every right to be part of that group who ended up losing to VVD.

 

Something interesting I noticed 

 

C.Ronaldo in 2007/08 had his breakout year and scored 42 goals

               in 2008/09 he had more pressure and defenders on him and scored 26

 

Salah had 44 last year and 27 this season so going by that logic... Salah is gonna leave us for Madrid and become a legend there...

 

 

 

[StevieMax]

Was the .5 for the T-shirt against Barcelona at Anfield?