Five days to go: Mohamed Salah chasing 100th goal for Liverpool
Mohamed Salah will chase down the 100-goal mark for Liverpool at the outset of the new season.
The Egyptian has found the net a remarkable 94 times in his previous three years with the club since joining from AS Roma in 2017, from 153 appearances.
Six more strikes will see Salah join an elite group of goalscorers to have reached three figures during their time at Anfield – and we take a look at his quest in our latest preview to the new Premier League campaign.
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Only 16 players have previously achieved a century of goals for the Reds, with Steven Gerrard the most recent – he brought up the milestone during a 2008 Champions League clash with PSV Eindhoven.
The first man to do it in Liverpool colours was Sam Raybould, who bagged his 100th in the early months of the 1905-06 season, and he has since been emulated by many of the finest finishers ever to pull on the shirt.
Jack Balmer, John Barnes, Harry Chambers, Kenny Dalglish, Dick Forshaw, Robbie Fowler, Gordon Hodgson, Roger Hunt, Kevin Keegan, Billy Liddell, Michael Owen, Jack Parkinson, Ian Rush and Ian St John hit the landmark between Raybould and Gerrard.
After hauls of 44, 27 and 23 in his three seasons so far, Salah is odds-on to add his name to that list in 2020-21 – and the trend predicts he will join them pretty quickly.
The most appearances the No.11 has previously needed to chalk up half-a-dozen goals in a campaign was 13, during 2018-19. In his debut term, it was just nine.
If Salah can score six times in his first 11 outings of the new season, he will claim third spot on the ranking of Liverpool’s players to reach 100 strikes in the fewest games.
Hunt’s all-time record (144 matches) is safe and Parkinson (153) cannot be beaten either, but the Egyptian King could edge ahead of Fowler and Raybould (165).
Salah’s teammates Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane are also moving ever closer to three figures for the Reds, with the former on 78 goals and the latter boasting 81.
There will be no happier man than Jürgen Klopp if all three can clinch a century during the course of 2020-21.
