Mohamed Salah is the mighty Gladiator of the Kop! Liverpool’s great ball of fire has ignited their title charge… and now Manchester United have the task of trying to contain him!

• Mo Salah’s formidable form has fired Liverpool to the top of the Premier League 
• His dream was to end up at Anfield and now he is rewriting the history books
• CHRIS SUTTON: Erik ten Hag was WRONG to say Man United played well after their abysmal Champions League exit… is he losing credibility? It’s All Kicking Off 

Of all the images from that mad March day, when seven goals sent Manchester United spinning, the one of Mohamed Salah symbolises his Liverpool career.

Three team-mates — Darwin Nunez, Jordan Henderson and Harvey Elliott — are running to him with smiles as wide as the Mersey; in the stands, joyous pandemonium reigns but Salah stands in front of The Kop with his arms outstretched a la Russell Crowe in Gladiator. Are you not entertained?

Oh how they’ve been entertained. The picture was taken after he’d buried his side’s fourth of the humiliating rout, creating history as he became the first Liverpool player to score in six straight fixtures against United. His next goal, 17 minutes later, saw him become the club’s leading Premier League scorer.

There was a presentation for him in the dressing room back then, a shirt with the number 129 on to signify him going past Robbie Fowler. Last Saturday at Crystal Palace, Klopp handed out another shirt, one the club’s support staff had carried with them for weeks. This one had the digits ‘200’.

Salah had just gained entry to a club that seemed to have closed its doors years ago. Ian Rush was the last Liverpool player to become a double centurion, in March 1987; the other members — Roger Hunt, Gordon Hodgson and Billy Liddell — belonged to a bygone era.

Mohamed Salah channelled his inner Russell Crowe from Gladiator after he scored Liverpool’s fourth against Manchester United in March

Liverpool fans can answer Crowe’s iconic ‘Are you not entertained?’ line with an emphatic ‘yes’

The forward became the club’s leading Premier League goalscorer that day with two goals

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Perhaps it was because it was expected that Salah would get there that the fanfare was muted on a wider scale; maybe it’s down to living in the present and not fully appreciating what is in front of you but, really, this moment cannot pass without recognition.

‘It’s crazy how good he is,’ Kostas Tsimikas, the Greek left-back who is one of Salah’s closest friends in the squad, explained. ‘He always works very hard and always tries to work more, especially with finishing. Mo absolutely deserves everything.’

He’s doing everything too. Liverpool, leaders of the Premier League, are being viewed as potential title challengers because Salah has been like a ball of fire this season, his fingerprints all over the results that have carried Jurgen Klopp’s men into an unexpected position.

Part of it comes down to the fact they have won every single match they have played at Anfield so far — a perfect 11 from 11 — and it will be intriguing to see how young men and new recruits such as Dominik Sbozoszlai and Ryan Gravenberch deal with the experience of English football’s Clasico.

Should they require guidance, they need look no further than Salah, the man who Liverpool’s recruitment department pursued relentlessly six years ago, having initially failed to land him in January 2014. They knew he could become a star in this area — as did he.

During his time at Fiorentina, he used to tell Micah Richards, with whom he had struck up a close bond, his dream was to end up at Anfield. It needed another move to Roma before that could happen but when the chance arose to sign him, Liverpool were determined not to miss.

Barry Hunter, Liverpool’s Chief Scout, and Dave Fallows, Head of Recruitment, were instrumental figures, setting up a scouting network in Italy, while Sporting Director Michael Edwards closed a then club record £36.9million deal for the Egyptian, on an initial £90,000 per week, in July 2017.

Liverpool have won all 11 games at Anfield this season, with Salah in scintillating form 

Manchester United have the daunting task of trying to contain Salah at Anfield on Sunday

New players Dominik Sbozoszlai and Ryan Gravenberch can take inspiration from how quickly Salah settled at Liverpool as they prepare for their first English ‘Clasico’

Impressive numbers but what about these? Liverpool have played 244 Premier League games since he scored on his in a 3-3 draw at Watford. Salah has played in 234 and three absences (Burnley, January 2018; Brentford and Crystal Palace, January 2022) were due to international commitments.

Availability for games was something that Hunter and Fallows had noted in Salah but he has taken it to freakish levels on Merseyside. The way he conditions himself is something that has always registered with team-mates, with former captain Henderson particularly keen to learn from him.

Henderson used to have ice baths after games but they didn’t always have the revitalising effect they should have done; Salah noted this and told him he would be better swimming immediately after matches regardless of the time: from here 2am pool visits became part of the schedule.

‘An immaculate professional, he’s all about that the detail and I can relate to that,’ Henderson wrote about him in his autobiography. ‘He’s always first in the gym and lives for football. He likes to have a laugh but he is obsessive about the game. That’s where we are kindred spirits.’

Salah might be 31 but he has the body of a man 10 years younger, his commitment to eating the right food — he avoids bread, particularly white loaves — dates back to when he was at his first club in Egypt, El Mokawaloon.

It’s not just his diet, though, about which he obsesses. It’s every little facet for marginal gains. His ballet dancer balance in close quarters, for instance, has been improved from working with resistance bands in the gym before sessions, building core strength.

Jordan Henderson described Salah as an ‘immaculate professional’ who is ‘obsessive’

Salah seeks small gains from minute details – eating the right foods, focusing on certain exercises, and analysing his shooting carefully

Then there is the analysis that goes into shooting. Some strikers like to watch videos of past goals they have scored to get them in a mood for a match — Daniel Sturridge was especially keen on this — but Salah will look at how goalkeepers have denied in him in certain situations.

One miss against Everton at Goodison Park, in February 2019, registered with Salah, when Jordan Pickford thwarted him in a tight situation. Salah had opted to go low with his effort in that occasion and knew the next time they came face-to-face, he would dink his finish. It worked.

Sentiments, of course, which apply to his transfer. Salah was a mainstay of Klopp’s first great team but, in the space of three years, he’s seen the entire title-winning midfield depart – Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum and Fabinho – as well two-thirds of the strike force that struck so much fear in rivals.

Over the course of five years, from August 2017, Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane were responsible for scoring or assisting 399 of the 611 goals Liverpool scored, a quite extraordinary figure. Firmino and Mane haven’t been the same since they left yet Salah keeps flying.

Liverpool made the biggest financial commitment to a player in their history when tying Salah down to a new contract in July 2022 – Newcastle, it is understood, were waiting ambitiously in the wings in the hope that talks broke down – and they made a similarly big commitment in August, too.

Liverpool turned down extortionate advances from Saudi Arabia for Salah over the summer

Salah has never been happier at the club and had great pride in wearing the armband vs LASK

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Many thought it was madness to turn down offers in excess of £150million from Saudi Arabia for Salah but even £200million wouldn’t have convinced them to do business; Liverpool know there will be interest in him again next summer but they will with that down the line.

There’s not a chance of him going anywhere in January – how could there be? Salah has never been happier and it should not go unnoticed the pride he felt recently in leading the team out as a captain for a Europa League fixture against the Austrian side LASK.

He is a standard bearer for Liverpool 2.0 and a standard setter, a man who on occasion such as visit from Manchester United will puff out his chest and be ready to lead the fight, hungry for more goals and desperate for more trophies.

Whether Liverpool have what it takes to become champions again this season remains to be seen and the festive period, when Arsenal and Newcastle also visit, will tells us much. But what is beyond doubt is the appetite of their talisman. Salah, in many ways, is only getting started.

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