Mohamed Salah's Top 10 Assists for Liverpool

Mohamed Salah set up a Liverpool goal for the 100th time when the Reds drew 2-2 with Fulham recently. Here are his 10 best assists.

If there is a downside to writing about the incredible statistics of Mohamed Salah, it’s that he renders your work inaccurate before you’ve barely had time to share it. There is always a new record for him to add to his footballing CV.

Take Liverpool’s recent 2-2 draw with Fulham. Heading into the game he had the potential to equal numerous notable marks. Salah had the opportunity to become the second player to directly contribute to two goals in five successive Premier League appearances, the fourth to score for the eighth game in a row in the competition and the eighth to hit the 100 home goal mark since the top flight was rebadged in 1992.

When he nets his next goal, Salah will draw level with the great Billy Liddell in fourth place on the Reds’ all-time scorer list, in around 160 fewer games played too. As it was, the Whites were hurt by the Egyptian’s creative talents instead.

Salah provided his 100th Liverpool assist in that match so it is time to review his fantastic body of work. We’d better be quick, number 101 will be along soon enough. Even if he doesn’t start at Southampton on Wednesday, as feels likely, he’s set up goals having come off the bench before (and all three were away from home, strangely enough).

The century was brought up with a cross to Cody Gakpo, as perhaps could have been predicted. The Dutchman is phenomenal at the back post, helped hugely by the quality of Salah’s delivery. The former PSV Eindhoven man is also third on his list of assist recipients, with his rate per 90 minutes way above anyone else for the club.

There are other statistics we can draw from the data; 77 per cent of Salah’s assists have been in the Premier League, the average one has been converted from 11 yards out in the 49th minute and more have occurred at 0-0 (30) than at any other score line. As he has bagged the first goal of a game 61 times, he’ll have directly contributed to 100 openers before we know it.

We can also see, thanks to FBRef, that Salah’s 98 assists in league and Europe have come from chances collectively valued at 86.4 expected. The key passes being worth a very healthy average of 0.15 xG helps explain the overachievement.

There are many points of interest in the dataset. But having looked at The Five Best Liverpool Goals Since 2017 earlier this year - with the Egyptian King inevitably taking the crown - it’s now time to look at The 10 Best Mohamed Salah Assists. It’s remarkable how many of them have been recent and/or for the same player.

As with the goals, we’re assessing them on statistical value, in this case the xG of the chance. The bar for entry is 0.66, so they all had at least a two-in-three likelihood of becoming a goal.

Per Understat, Salah has only created two chances in the league of at least this value which were not converted. Good players make others better, with this elite level of creativity being a big part of it for his fellow attackers.

Let’s begin. If you press play on the match highlights video, it should start with the goal in question, though it will continue playing to the end.

10th (0.66): Cody Gakpo vs. Newcastle (2-0 FT), February 2023

We begin with the birth of the Salah-Gakpo partnership. This assist was a wonderful pass, hit first time over the Newcastle back line and perfectly into space for the (at the time) Liverpool new boy to exploit.

The phrase ‘through ball’ summons images of a smooth pass along the deck, cutting the gap between two defenders. Salah showed here that such defence-splitting deliveries can be aerial when required too.

Ninth (0.69): Curtis Jones vs. Chelsea (2-1), October 2024

While not identical to the previous assist, there was a similarity in that the pass picked out a teammate who had made a run that foxed the opposition defence.

This cross also benefitted from something which Mark Carey highlighted for The Athletic last month. Arne Slot’s Liverpool use underlapping runs to drag defenders out of position for space creating purposes, with Dominik Szoboszlai taking care of business in this instance.

Curtis Jones is one of five players who are joint-fourth on the Egyptian’s assist ledger, with five. From this quintet, Jones has the lowest average xG of the Salah-powered chances he has converted, aside from Trent Alexander-Arnold who often benefits from angle-changing tapped free-kicks.

Does that make him a better finisher than Luis Díaz, Diogo Jota or Darwin Núñez, the others in the five Salah assists gang? Probably not; well, maybe the latter.

Joint-seventh (0.77): Sadio Mané vs. Porto (4-1), April 2019 & Cody Gakpo vs. Bayer Leverkusen (4-0), November 2024

A Champions League pair up next; one from the campaign in which Liverpool won the competition and another from this season which will hopefully end in the same fashion.

As the beneficiary of more Salah assists than any other player (despite their supposedly somewhat fractious relationship), it is only right that Sadio Mané is included here. This one was deemed to be a shot, with its impact lessened a little by the requirement for a video review overturn before the goal was given. It’s worth watching the clip to see the joy with which Salah celebrates referee Danny Makkelie pointing to the centre spot though.

And how’s this for a weird coincidence? The same ref had his assistant’s decision overturned by the VAR for the other goal we’re looking at here, with Núñez indicating the offside call was wrong immediately. In what will become a very common description as our countdown continues, the assist pass was a cross to Gakpo at the back post.

Sixth (0.82): Diogo Jota vs. Southampton (4-0), November 2021

Before Gakpo arrived on Merseyside, Salah could rely on Jota to tap in chances on the left of the six-yard box. The xG of this goal is only slightly less than the total of the four others converted by this duo, illustrating that the Portuguese forward can spin gold out of any opportunity, not just the big chances. The pity is that this pairing has only had 70 per 90s together across Jota’s four-and-a-half years with Liverpool.

Fifth (0.83): Alexis Mac Allister vs. Bologna (2-0), October 2024

This goal could easily have had Díaz’s name in the heading, as he and Alexis Mac Allister were queuing up to convert the chance. Where were they, inevitably? The back post area.

Despite the Argentine having advanced data for just 34 goals in the FBRef database, this isn’t the highest value of them. That came for Brighton against Everton from slightly further out, so the chance was presumably given an xG bonus as Jordan Pickford was between the sticks.

Fourth (0.87): Roberto Firmino vs. Roma (5-2), April 2018

Salah wreaked havoc against his former side which included future Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker. He scored twice then set up a pair to put the Reds 4-0 up in the semi-finals of the Champions League, for pity’s sake.

The only other player to get two goals and two assists in a game in the last four of the best club competition in the world in the last decade? Roberto Firmino in the same match.

Bobby the Brazilian was second only to Mané from taking advantage of Salah’s sublime creative powers. Setting Firmino up for the seventh - SEVENTH! - goal against Manchester United in March 2023 should probably be in here, to be honest, but this list is chosen by maths, not big, dumb emotions.

Third (0.90): Darwin Núñez vs. RB Leipzig (1-0), October 2024

Not even walking finishing conundrum Núñez was going to miss this one. As in Portugal for Mané, whether this was intended to be a key pass rather than a shot could be up for debate; Opta classed it as the latter.

Whatever the explanation, this is the sole example in the top 10 which set up the only goal of a 1-0 win. Ghosting in unseen at the back post is always a winner.

Second (0.94): Cody Gakpo vs. Wolves (3-1), September 2023

The silver medal goes to the one equalising goal in this collection. It’s worth considering the geometry at play here. Salah passes the ball through one defender’s legs, past the goalkeeper and between two further opponents to find Gakpo on the far side for a tap-in. Mohamed the mathematician strikes again.

This game is perhaps best remembered as the one where Alexis Mac Allister had to be substituted at half time due to jet lag. Worst. Friends. Episode. Ever.

First (0.95): Cody Gakpo vs. Manchester City (2-0), December 2024

This feels like a fitting winner. It takes the article full circle as this moment helped Salah equal a Premier League record: most games featuring a goal and an assist. He has already set a new mark for this achievement, despite this game taking place less earlier this month.

It was also a massive goal in the context of the 2024/25 title race, helping pile further pressure onto the side which twice denied Liverpool further significant silverware during the Jürgen Klopp era. This means more, and so forth.

The assist also sums up this collection perfectly. Lots of them went to the back post, four were for Gakpo (more than anyone else) and half of the set have occurred since the start of October this year, which is absurd.

Five of the previous nine goals Salah has created (at the time of writing) are in his top nine for expected goal value. Even if a run that scalding hot cannot last indefinitely, the Egyptian shows no sign of burning out as he approaches his mid-thirties and the conclusion of his contract. Anyone who regularly provide assists like these is worth keeping around.