Much has been said about the form of Mohamed Salah this season but the underlying statistics suggest the Liverpool star can match last term's record-breaking numbers in front of goal.
Jurgen Klopp’s decision to substitute the Egyptian in the 66th minute of last Saturday's match at Chelsea came after Salah had missed several opportunities to open the scoring.
The Liverpool manager admits it is not quite clicking on front of goal for Salah, but has little doubt that the form that brought his player 32 Premier League goals last season can soon be rediscovered.
"Obviously, expectations changed, that’s normal," Klopp told Liverpool's official website ahead of the home match with Manchester City. "He set completely new standards last year [for goalscoring], but for all the rest [of his game] it’s what he did last year."
Certainly the statistics back up Klopp. As the table below shows, Salah is only one behind his tally of four PL goals at this stage last season, and his one assist is the same across both campaigns.
Salah's record after seven PL matches
| 2017/18 | 2018/19 | |
|---|---|---|
| Minutes | 514 | 584 |
| Goals | 4 | 3 |
| Assists | 1 | 1 |
| Chances created | 8 | 17 |
| Shots | 24 | 29 |
| Shots in box | 21 | 20 |
| Shots on target | 14 | 12 |
| xG | 4.1 | 5.1 |
Going into Matchweek 8, no player had more shots on target this season than Salah's 12, and the quality of his chances have improved, as shown by the expected goals metric (xG).
The Egyptian has also created more than twice as many chances for his team-mates this season.
Man City could be just the team to spark an explosive impact. Salah scored three times in all competitions last season against the Premier League champions.
