“If you give him the ball, he will probably score.”
That was Diogo Jota’s playful response when The Athletic asked him in an interview last summer how easy it is to assist Liverpool team-mate Mohamed Salah. The Egypt forward reached 200 goals for English clubs this month (198 as a Liverpool player, two for Chelsea), and nine of those have been set up by Portugal international Jota.
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Yet while whole books have been written about Salah’s goalscoring prowess, and his status as potentially Liverpool FC’s greatest-ever player, what are the secrets to setting him up?
Jota is a good place to start.
His most lethal combination with Salah was a burst of three goals in the space of six minutes and 12 seconds in a Champions League group game away against Rangers in October 2022.
Jota’s assists were all tricky for his team-mate to control.
The first deflects off Jota into the path of Salah, who brings it down in one on his right foot. He then goes past left-back Borna Barisic and, just as centre-back Ben Davies approaches, he pokes a finish across Allan McGregor. The second was part of a pinball-esque sequence. As Jota plays the ball into Salah, he easily avoids Davies, Leon King fails to read his movement and Steven Davis steams in but is unable to knock Salah off target. The third pass springs into Salah who takes it with him into the box and finds the far corner as Barisic and Davies again fail to stop him.
Every goal from Mo Salah’s record-breaking hat-trick vs. Rangers 😮💨
⚽️ 75′
⚽️ 80′
⚽️ 81′The fastest in Champions League history ⚡️#UCL pic.twitter.com/8ZuAT6dyzU
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 12, 2022
Since Jota joined Liverpool in the summer of 2020, he has created more chances (31) for Salah across the Premier League and Champions League than any other player. And with a combined expected assists (xA) number of 4.1 — xA measures the potential likelihood of a pass becoming an assist — it nods to how efficient Salah is.
Jota is not alone in being a creative force for Salah in Liverpool colours. Darwin Nunez is their latest player who is looking increasingly in tune with the 31-year-old.
The Uruguay international has nine assists since joining from Benfica in the summer of 2022 — and all have been for Salah. Nunez came off the bench for his debut against Fulham in August last year and was assisted by Salah within 15 minutes. He returned the favour by setting up a Salah goal after another quarter of an hour.
| Player | Assists |
|---|---|
Firmino | 21 |
Mane | 12 |
Robertson | 11 |
Alexander-Arnold | 9 |
Jota, Nunez | 9 |
Henderson | 7 |
Oxlade-Chamberlain | 6 |
Jones | 5 |
Fabinho, Shaqiri | 4 |
Alisson, Keita, Milner, Van Dijk | 3 |
Coutinho, Gakpo, Matic*, Matip, Origi, Tsimikas | 2 |
Can, Gomez, Moreno, Szoboszlai, Wijnaldum | 1 |
* Assist for Chelsea |
Since that day in west London, Nunez has passed to Salah more times than any other team-mate (84). And in their 582 minutes playing together in the Premier League this season, on average Nunez and Salah are combining to create a chance every 45 minutes, the highest rate of any two players in the division.
From the 16 chances created by Nunez for Salah, 4.6 have been expected assists. Salah is outperforming this metric, scoring seven times.
Nunez, like Jota, will know speed, of both mind and body, is critical when assisting Salah.
Twice against Everton at Anfield, last season and again in this one, Nunez has assisted him after charging up the pitch.
Away against Manchester City in last season’s Carabao Cup, it was another sweeping counter-attack from Nunez which was finished off by Salah.
It is becoming an instinctive move for Nunez to roll the ball to his right for Salah, as he did against Brentford in Liverpool’s final match before this international break.
After a curved pass in behind, Salah controls the ball with his right foot before opening his body up and planting a familiar finish into the left side of the goal with his left.
With Salah though, it is not always about looking for him on his left foot down the right.
Among his 200 goals for English clubs (besides the two for Chelsea there have also been 29 penalties for Liverpool), Salah has scored eight with his head and 30 with his right boot.
Salah boasts the highest share of shots for Liverpool in the Premier League in each of the past five seasons, including this one. All roads so often lead to him when they attack, and he has ramped up his efficiency.
He is shooting less often this season. In 2018-19, his second season at Anfield, he averaged 3.7 shots per 90 minutes and had an expected goals per shot figure of 0.13. This season, his rate is 2.9 per 90 but at a higher quality per attempt (0.19 xG).
Right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold, who last season stepped into a hybrid midfield role which often requires Salah to move out wide, talked through what it is like linking up with him.
“I have an understanding of where and how he wants the ball,” Alexander-Arnold said. “The signals he gives me… I can’t really go into the signals because the left-backs will be onto them. But there are definitely signals he does which indicate where he wants the ball. It is about making sure I read them and am able to execute those passes.”
In the past four seasons, Liverpool’s entry into the final third via passes or dribbles has been skewed slightly towards Salah’s side.
Alexander-Arnold has nine assists for Salah. His fellow full-back Andy Robertson has 11 — the most the left-back has for any player. The Scot’s eighth assist to him was a corner aimed to the near post which Salah scored from against Brighton near the end of Liverpool’s title-winning season in 2020. Salah said afterwards it was something the team had worked on.
Even Alisson has three assists for Salah. No goalkeeper has assisted a player more in the Premier League. It is a move well rehearsed, as manager Jurgen Klopp revealed after it first occurred in a 2-0 win against Manchester United in January 2020.
“They played together at Roma and from the first day since they were in, Mo is asking for these balls and Ali wants to play these balls,” Klopp said.
United had committed every outfield player forward as they trailed 1-0 at Anfield in stoppage time.
Salah is not even in frame in our first screengrab as Alisson claims the ball. Nemanja Matic and Dan James (circled) are the two United players furthest back. It takes them less than a couple of seconds to realise they have been ghosted. And by then it is too late.
“I know him, he knows me,” Alisson said in October last year, after he assisted Salah’s winner against City. “I know when I catch the ball, he’s going to run like crazy. The only thing I need to do is make a good pass.”
A goal you'll enjoy watching on repeat 🤩
Here's every angle of Mo Salah's magnificent winner against Man City, presented by @Sonos 📹 pic.twitter.com/QerOQh8gwz
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) October 17, 2022
Alisson’s distribution and awareness were integral in outsmarting City that day at Anfield. He spots Salah is the only player with his back to the action, and his forward run begins before his goalkeeper even has the ball.
Not everyone has enjoyed the same level of success in terms of service for Salah.
Luis Diaz has been at Liverpool almost two years now and is yet to record an assist for him. Diaz’s predecessor Sadio Mane assisted Salah more times than all but one other player (13) and the signs are positive that the Colombia international is increasingly connecting with Liverpool’s main man. He has passed to Salah more than any other player this season (58), and created more chances (12) for him too.
Harvey Elliott will know the feeling.
The 20-year-old plays on the right of Liverpool’s midfield and has passed to Salah 185 times. But for all their link-up play and 22 Premier League starts together, the wait goes on — none of Elliott’s 10 chances created for Salah in the Premier League has ended in a goal for the Egyptian.
Diaz and Elliott have still proved useful to Salah’s exploits without either directly assisting any goals.
Elliott could have scored himself or helped along Nunez’s pass and claimed his first Salah assist against Brighton last month. Instead, he let it run on for Salah, who did the rest.
The above move highlights another of Salah’s qualities that makes him easy to assist; his positioning.
Salah will hang back or place himself out wide, then get forward at the perfect time. He can go undetected by opposition defenders — as he did in the 5-0 win against Manchester United at Old Trafford in October 2021.
“He is smart enough to stay wide in that moment,” Jota, who assisted this next goal, said.
“I could clearly see him. As I dribble inside the defender, the left-back is closing him and then he has free space to shoot.”
Roberto Firmino first assisted Salah in a competitive match for Liverpool on the opening day of the 2017-18 season. After their six years together, nobody has assisted more Salah goals (21) than the Brazil forward.
“I received a through pass and chipped it over the goalkeeper,” Firmino wrote in his autobiography at that 3-3 away draw against Watford. “Would the ball go in or not? I don’t know. All I know is that Mo Salah appeared like a lightning bolt and that touch turned into an assist.”
As Firmino found in that moment at Vicarage Road, assisting Salah can look straightforward thanks to the sheer quality of Liverpool’s talisman and his all-round game.
(Top photo: Salah and Nunez’s link-up is beginning to flourish; Mark Leech/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)