Liverpool forward Mo Salah’s goalscoring feats make him possible heir to Lionel Messi… sorry, Jose Mourinho
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MO SALAH was there at the ‘Demba Ba match’, when Steven Gerrard slipped on his backside and blew Liverpool’s best title chance in years.
The Egyptian winger, following the orders of Jose Mourinho, earned a booking for a tactical foul as a weakened Chelsea stole a 2-0 win with 27 per cent of possession on an afternoon in April 2014.
Salah spent just a year under Mourinho at Stamford Bridge but when Chelsea won the title in 2015, the Portuguese ensured he was given a medal, despite having made just three sub appearances.
So as Liverpool’s most potent weapon goes gunning for his former boss at Old Trafford today, it can’t be said that Mourinho didn’t appreciate Salah at all.
And, of course, he was not the world-class footballer then, that he is now. It was no crime that Mourinho preferred Eden Hazard, Oscar and Willian, to Salah back then.
Bought from Basel as a back-up option, he never progressed beyond that.
The problem was that Mourinho did not have the imagination nor the patience to foresee the player Salah might become.
It’s a lack of vision which bothers Manchester United fans today.
Salah is after all vying for this season’s Golden Boot.
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Back in 2014, Salah had also scored for Chelsea in a 6-0 thumping which saw Mourinho’s great foe Arsene Wenger humiliated on his 1,000th game as Arsenal boss.
But when he was loaned to Fiorentina the following January, it was an 18-month deal, not a standard half-season job. As far as Mourinho was concerned, Salah was gone.
During his second spell as Chelsea manager, he also washed his hands of Kevin De Bruyne — meaning that two of the three serious contenders for this season’s Footballer of the Year award have been rejected by the Special One.
As Salah prepares to take on Manchester United today, his stature as a prolific goalscorer and an extreme dribbler marks him out as a potential heir to Lionel Messi.
He was the Premier League’s Player of the Month for February, an award Jurgen Klopp says is ‘well deserved’ for his consistent excellence.
During the 2½ years between Mourinho jettisoning him and Klopp signing him for Liverpool last summer, Salah developed and flourished in Serie A with Fiorentina and Roma.
Yet given his supposed ‘flop’ at Chelsea, the £34.3million club-record transfer fee looked seriously steep.
Under Klopp, though, Salah has continued to improve at a rate of knots — he has been encouraged to play with greater directness and a return of 24 goals in 28 games is almost ridiculous for a player who remains chiefly a wideman.
Today, Salah hopes to complete a full set against Liverpool’s big six rivals, while admitting his respect for David De Gea — the keeper who, more than any player, has earned United second place in the table, one place above Klopp’s men.
Salah said: “De Gea is a great goalkeeper and this is the only team I did not score against in the top six this season, so I will try. I’m very excited to play in this game because of that.”
The attitude of Mourinho and Klopp towards Salah is typical of both managers.
United’s boss is the conservative with an inherent mistrust of both youth and flair, who wants to work with finished articles.
Liverpool’s manager markedly improves individuals and relishes flair. Not flair for flair’s sake but flair executed at speed and with purpose, in order to inflict the maximum damage.
Of course, the goalless draw Mourinho may well settle for, even at home, would keep them above Klopp’s men.
But Liverpool’s sale of Philippe Coutinho — after which they have only continued to improve — means they are in profit over the past two years, while Mourinho’s United have spent a net total of a quarter of a billion in the same time.
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While Klopp has brought joy and hope to Anfield, Mourinho has brought little of the same to Old Trafford.
And Salah is the embodiment of that Liverpool optimism.
United’s boss, with his black belt in the dark arts, will have to shackle his ex-player to earn a result today.
But stopping people’s fun is what Mourinho excels at.