Mohamed Salah’s unfulfilled ambition shows Liverpool superstar’s true worth | OneFootball

A footballer who specialises in hitting the target revealed his biggest aim.

Mohamed Salah had already scored for the eighth consecutive game, helping Liverpool to record a second 2-0 win over Manchester City this season. He has 30 goals for the campaign, but a broader goal has emerged. "We need another title,” he said. “Me and the big guys in the team, we need another title.”

Salah has long used personal ambitions to fuel the collective good. His 241st Liverpool goal means he is now tied with Gordon Hodgson, behind only Ian Rush and Roger Hunt in the all-time list. If the Ballon d’Or has long seemed a trophy on his wishlist, now he is looking for further success for the group of old-timers.

Perhaps they are Liverpool’s big five, the quintet who started the 2019 Champions League final and who, six years on, are still the core. Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson, Virgil van Dijk and Salah are the survivors of a sensational team.

They were fundamental in Liverpool 1.0, to adapt Jurgen Klopp’s phrase. He christened the team he bequeathed Arne Slot Liverpool 2.0. Now they are 11 points clear of Arsenal.

Slot, with his innate ability to downplay anything, countered: “I would hope the ones that haven’t won it yet - that you call not the big ones - that they would want to win something as well.” And so they surely do: Dominik Szoboszlai, the other scorer at the Etihad, didn’t hear the fans singing that they were going to win the league because, on the final whistle, he collapsed to the turf in exhaustion. He had run many a mile.

But, surely, they are going to win it. Arsenal have a game in hand but are only on course to get 77 points. That would mean Liverpool would only need another 14. They have seven remaining home games. Glory beckons.

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Liverpool celebrate against Man City as Phil Foden appears dejected (AP)

And Salah’s unfulfilled ambition reflects two elements: that one Premier League title is an unflattering return considering Liverpool’s excellence over his seven years at Anfield. And that, for the old guard, this may be the last chance; certainly together. Famously, Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold are out of contract in the summer, with the right-back likeliest to leave and an impasse making it feel possible the top scorer goes, too. For Alisson, there is the spectre of Giorgi Mamardashvili, bought but parked at Valencia. For Robertson, it could be the end for another reason: age may be catching up with the valiant left-back and a successor sought.

They were pillars of a side that earned 97, 99 and 92 points in Premier League seasons. In two of them, though, they only came second. They hold the bittersweet distinction of the two highest points totals ever secured by runners-up.

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Mohamed Salah scored the opener at the Etihad Stadium (PA Wire)

There is an obvious reason why: the side they beat on Sunday, the club they are dethroning this season. Klopp was Pep Guardiola’s greatest rival and, no matter what Slot achieves, may forever remain that. The German has a winning record against the Catalan. Yet Guardiola won six Premier League titles, Klopp one. He left Liverpool saying he could have won more: but for City, and Real Madrid in their Champions League finals, he would have done.

He is one of the five greatest Premier League managers. But the other four – Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho and Guardiola – all won the division at least three times. Now Slot, at the first time of asking, is set to draw level with Klopp. Red Bull’s Head of Global Soccer could be forgiven for thinking he left a year too soon, before City spiralled into decline, Arsenal lost creativity and goals, forwards and discipline, in pivotal moments.

Slot may have demurred with Salah’s suggestion; or the implication, anyway, that the stalwarts needed the title more. For him, it would be an immediate way of proving himself a worthy successor to Klopp.

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Mohamed Salah has inspired Liverpool to the brink of the Premier League title (Action Images via Reuters)

But there was a significance to Salah’s comments. The Saudi millions have been dangled in front of him before, and may be again. His motivations are not purely financial. Players can retire with memories, medals and money; in Salah’s case, probably all three. But a second Premier League title would elevate him a little further. His contribution is greater the second time around: in 2019-20, Salah got 19 goals and 10 assists in the league. Now, with 11 games to go, he has scored 25 and made a further 16. Five years ago, he only outscored Sadio Mane by one, while Alexander-Arnold and Robertson registered more assists. Now Salah is in a different league to everyone else: six clear in the division’s goal charts, six clear in the assists table.

He has scored and assisted in both games against City this season. He has helped take the title from them. It is one way in which it is the end of an era at City, as a title-winning teams break up. This season may be an end for Liverpool’s big five, the last before they are broken up. But if Salah, Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Robertson and Van Dijk go their separate ways, it will surely be with the title the Egyptian has in his sights.