Mohamed Salah: Liverpool forward named Infogol's Premier League xG Player of the Month
Sporting Life have pored through Infogol's Expected Goals (xG) data and picked out Mohamed Salah as the Premier League's xG player of the month for September.
The xG player of the month is selected via Infogol's rating system, with the Liverpool striker's average of 9.09 across September seeing off competition from Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo (8.81) and Salah's team-mate Sadio Mane (8.31).
Salah has been vital for Liverpool in the month of September, scoring three times from chances equating to 3.21 (xG) across three games in the Premier League.
The Egyptian has also racked up an Expected Assists (xA) total of 0.49, though none of the chances he has created for his team-mates were taken.
Mr Reliable
Three goals in a month is a good return, but the fact that each of Salah’s goals were scored in a different match proves just how consistent and reliable he is.
He opened the scoring against Leeds (0.63 xG), he scored the second against Crystal Palace (0.42 xG), putting the game to bed, and he also gave Liverpool the lead (0.41 xG) against Brentford having been a goal down to the Bees.
Premier League 100 club
Salah’s opener against Leeds was his 100th Premier League goal, and it is clear that the Egyptian is more than just a one-trick pony.
His trademark 'cut inside from the right and find the top corner with a curling left-foot effort' has served him well over the years, and it is still proving difficult for defenders to stop.
A whopping 82 of Salah’s 100 goals have come from his left foot, with 12 arriving via his weaker right foot and six with his head.
In recent times, though, Salah has reinvented himself as more of a poacher, with a lot of his goals now coming from inside the box.
Crucial goals
The value of Salah’s goals cannot be underestimated either, with 42 of his first 100 Premier League goals giving Liverpool the lead, a massive positive for any team looking to challenge at the top end of the table.
Importantly as well, 28 of those goals were winning goals for the Reds, demonstrating just how vital he is for Jurgen Klopp’s team.
R and R vital for Salah’s recovery
Salah has played a lot of football over the past few years, representing Egypt in the World Cup in 2018, in the African Cup of Nations in 2019, as well as the packed domestic schedule last season as football continued in the face of the Covid pandemic.
Having this summer off seems to have done the forward the world of good, however, Salah looking extremely sharp as he bids to lead his side to a second Premier League title.
No signs of stopping
Already, Salah has made a brilliant start to October, his standout performance undoubtedly coming at Anfield against reigning champions Manchester City.
As the game was drifting along, Salah picked up the ball in the 59th minute, skipped past a City defender before laying on a perfectly weighted ball for Mane to score the opener, a chance equating to 0.31 xG created by Salah.
His best was yet to come, however, as, 76 minutes in, Salah rolled Joao Cancelo before dancing past Bernardo Silva and then Aymeric Laporte and rifling the ball right-footed across Ederson and into the back of the net.
The goal was awarded an xG value of 0.36, but that doesn’t really take into account the marvellous work Salah did to get himself into that position.
Will Salah finish as top scorer?
Mohamed Salah is currently averaging 0.76 xG per match this season, which effectively means, if he continually gets on the end of those sort of chances, Infogol predict the Egyptian will score roughly 28 goals this season, which would be his second-most prolific season in English football.
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