Former Chelsea star John Obi Mikel shares what he’s started to notice about Liverpool’s Mo Salah this season

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Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah has been ‘back to his old self’ so far this season.

Salah is, unsurprisingly, the Reds top scorer having bagged 10 goals in all competitions. After a disappointing year for Liverpool last season, Mo looks set to drag them to better things in 2023/24.

And according to former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel, the Egyptian is looking ‘sharper.’

Having been asked to name the Premier League’s most important player on The Obi One Podcast, Mikel put Salah in the conversation, although ultimately plumped for Manchester City’s Rodri.

“No disrespect to these players,” said the Nigerian. “Erling Haaland is doing amazingly well. Salah is bang on, he looks like he’s going back to his old self. He’s scoring goals now, you can see his movement is a lot sharper.

“But yeah, we have to give it to Rodri, he’s been absolutely fantastic.”

Salah on top of his game

Although it’s true to say that Salah has been one of the country’s most important players again this season, we don’t entirely agree with Mikel here.

It isn’t as though Mo has been away anywhere. The 31-year-old had a slightly tricky beginning to last campaign, but ended it incredibly strongly.

There has never been an elongated period where Salah has been off the boil. Hence, nothing for him to come ‘back’ to.

Ever since he arrived at Liverpool, Mo has been consistently one of the top performers in the Premier League. And although we might have to concede that Rodri may be even more important to Man City, it’s certainly debatable.

As seen by their recent slump when he was suspended, City do struggle without the Spaniard. We know that they’ll still score goals without Haaland for example, but no one can really replace what Rodri does.

For Liverpool, the same is kind of true of Salah. His brilliance in scoring and assisting is yet to be replicated by anyone else at Anfield.

But, the Reds do still have goal-scorers and creative players in the squad without him.

Nevertheless, the crux of the matter is that Salah is absolutely brilliant this season, and although he’s had a couple of quiet games, that isn’t a matter to debate.