Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler doesn’t believe Mohamed Salah will break Ian Rush’s goal-scoring record at the club.
Salah climbed another place on the list yesterday, his goal against Brentford moving him level with Steven Gerrard as the Reds joint-fifth highest scorer in history.
Despite being 160 goals behind Rush right now, you’d expect that Salah may actually have one eye on that record. But speaking to premierleague.com yesterday, Fowler admitted that he doesn’t think Mo will be able to get there.
“Every week he’s racking up these stats and these records, I think we’ve hit him with every superlative under the sun,” said the pundit. “He’s a player who doesn’t get injured, I’ve yet to see him get injured, touch wood. But you can’t argue with those stats, they are phenomenal.
“You look at some of the good names on that list, I don’t think he’ll ever catch Rushy in all fairness, but he’s overtook Kenny, he’s on level with Steven. So that tells you what type of player he is.”
Salah gunning for the top
Clearly, whether or not Salah even has a chance of breaking Rush’s record will depend on how long he stays at the club. Over his almost six years at Anfield so far, Mo has been averaging 31 goals per season.
Keep on at that rate, and it would take Salah five seasons or so to draw level with the legendary Welshman. By that time, Salah will be approaching his 36th birthday. It sounds impossible.
Knowing Mo though, he won’t see it that way. He’s contracted to Liverpool for at least the next two years and you can see him signing on again with the sole intention of gunning as hard as possible for Rush’s total.
Whether he gets there or not, he’ll surely get into the top four at the very least. The Egyptian now needs 43 goals to surpass the man immediately above him – Billy Liddell. Another 13 would then see him jump into the top three, above Gordon Hodgson, who has 241.
Assuming Salah at least sees out his deal until 2025, scoring the 56 goals needed to make that happen is certainly do-able.
From there, it starts to get a little tough. Not only is Rush more-or-less out of reach on 346, but second-place Roger Hunt is also way out with 285. Mo is already a modern-day Liverpool icon. If he can smash his way into that kind of esteemed company though, he’ll be talked about as one of the absolute best of the best. Go and make it happen, Mo!