Egyptian winger Mo Salah has lit up Anfield in his first season for Liverpool, showing the sort of goalscoring form that fans haven't seen since Luis Suarez left. If he scores against West Ham on Saturday, Salah will match the tally of 31 goals that Suarez recorded in his final season on Merseyside.
Mo Salah is the new king on Merseyside. Since Luis Suarez left for Barcelona in 2014, Liverpool have lacked a talismanic goalscorer, a player who can be guaranteed on to provide goals week in, week out. In Mo Salah, the 'Reds' have found someone to fill the Uruguayan's shoes.
Like Suarez, nobody was expecting Salah to shine quite as brightly as he has done so far; both players arrived as exciting prospects, but certainly not ready-made superstars. And much like Suarez, Salah has proved to be deadly in front of goal, becoming Jurgen Klopp's top scorer this season by a fair margin.
Salah has scored a total of 30 goals in 36 appearances in all competitions so far, 9 more than Liverpool's second top scorer Roberto Firmino, with both players having played 2883 minutes of football.
Furthermore, if he scores against West Ham on Saturday, he will equal Suarez's final season tally of 31 goals. Interestingly, if he does manage it, then both players will have reached 31 goals in the same amount of games: 37. Although it is only February, Salah is already on the verge of making the same amount of appearances as Suarez did in his final season at Liverpool, due to two main factors.
Firstly, Salah has benefited from the fact that the side he is playing in have Champions League football, a competition in which the Egyptian has scored 7 goals in 9 appearances. During the 2013/4 season, Liverpool were only competing on the domestic front, and all of Suarez's goals came in the Premier League. It remains to be seen if Salah can match Suarez's league goals record, but with 26 goals already notched, and 11 games remaining, the odds are in Salah's favour.
The second factor is that Suarez missed the first five games of that 2013/4 season, due to his infamous bite on Branislav Ivanovic. The first game he played that season was on the 29th of September, which gives Salah a healthy headstart on the Uruguayan.
Liverpool fans' affection towards their new hero will grow even larger if he matches Suarez's tally on Saturday, as they look for a win against West Ham to continue their fight for the top four.