Top 5 Goals: Mo Salah
After nine seasons, Mo Salah has played his final game for Liverpool. When he arrived at the club in 2017, few could have foreseen that he would go on to become an undisputed all-time great. With over 250 goals, Salah is third on the list of all-time Liverpool scorers and fourth on the Premier League list. It is not just goals that make Mo a legendary figure. Unlike some of Liverpool’s other iconic forwards of the last few decades, Salah has delivered the biggest honours too. He will always be remembered as one of Liverpool's greatest players. There have been so many iconic goals during the Egyptian King’s reign and here are my top five.
No. 5: vs Everton - Premier League (2025/26)
There are quite a few goals against Manchester United or Everton that battled it out for a spot in this list including hat-trick goals and even a Puskas award winner in Salah’s first Merseyside derby. But, coming in fifth place is Salah’s opener in the first derby at the Hill Dickinson. There is some recency bias but in Salah’s last season, where he has fallen below the performance level he has maintained so consistently, he was still able to deliver a big moment for the fans to savour.
Cody Gakpo won possession before finding Salah with an inch-perfect pass which allowed Salah to finish first time on his left foot past Jordan Pickford. Iliman Ndiaye thought he had put Everton ahead just a couple of minutes beforehand but was denied by a VAR offside. For Liverpool to then go ahead so quickly was a real swing of emotions.
In what was otherwise a season to forget for Liverpool and Salah, this was a high point and a game that will always be remembered as setting the tone for Liverpool's relationship with the Hill Dickinson stadium. This goal proved to be his last for the club and what a fitting way to bow out.
No. 4: vs Manchester United - Premier League (2019/20)
This goal might be number one on the list for many supporters. When this goal was scored, the league was effectively won. After waiting 30 years for the 19th title, Liverpool were 16 points clear in January and the challengers had all but thrown in the towel. Liverpool led by a goal to nil going into the final minute of stoppage time and Manchester United were applying late pressure. Alisson gathered the ball and rather than time-wasting, he looked for Salah who was bursting towards the Kop end. Alisson’s pass was perfect and Salah took the ball in his stride, holding off Dan James for 30 yards before sliding it under David De Gea.
This was Salah’s first goal against Manchester United in his fifth Liverpool appearance against them. Salah’s struggles against Manchester United had been widely documented, exaggerated by the fact that he couldn’t stop scoring against just about every other team he’d faced in the Premier League. It is remarkable now, given that slow start, that he will leave Liverpool with Manchester United being his most tormented opposition team with 16 goals against them.
The rendition of “we’re gonna win the league” at full-time said it all. A fanbase so often accustomed to domestic disappointment over the previous three decades were bullish in declaring themselves champions with little over half the season played. Ultimately, the fans were proven right and the league title was delivered at a canter and in no small part down to the goals of Mo Salah.
No. 3: vs Chelsea - Premier League (2018/19)
Salah has scored a lot of very similar goals in his Liverpool career. We can all picture Mo cutting in on his left foot bending one into the far top corner. There are multiple goals where he receives the ball on the right-hand side of the penalty area, takes a touch and slides it beneath a helpless goalkeeper. There are also a multitude of bundled and scuffed finishes that the most prolific forwards need in order to become serial golden boot winners. This goal was none of those. This was raw power and pinpoint precision. Van Dijk’s diagonal pass into Salah’s feet is perfectly controlled, Salah shifted it out of his feet, brushed past Emerson Palmieri and hammered it into the top corner. Anfield, already visibly bouncing from Sadio Mane’s opener a few minutes before, went into pure delirium. The beauty of the goal, the sound of the ball hitting the net and the Anfield roar make this a goal a joy to watch on repeat. For those of us who weren’t at Anfield that day, the commentary adds a lot too. This was perhaps the last great Martin Tyler moment commentating on Liverpool and as close as Jamie Carragher has been to a Gary Neville “goalgasm”. Ultimately, it counted for very little as Liverpool didn’t go on to win the title. But for me personally, this is one of my favourite Premier League goals and one that I’ll never forget celebrating in the moment.
No. 2: vs Manchester City - Premier League (2021/22)
This is probably the best goal that Salah has scored and one of the all-time great Premier League goals. The football world was getting back to normality after the stale spectacle of pandemic Premier League and this was one of the first huge games at Anfield with fans in the ground. Liverpool and Manchester City had set the early pace and as always, Salah was the man for the big occasion.
After Sadio Mane’s opener had been cancelled out by Phil Foden, the game was level going into the last 15 minutes. Curtis Jones picked up the ball, found Salah and the rest is history. Joao Cancelo tried to get tight to Salah but was shrugged off and Salah beat Bernardo Silva with a neat piece of footwork. From nothing, Salah was into a goalscoring position. He faked to go inside Aymeric Laporte, threatening his signature move on the left foot, but instead chopped back onto his right and fired across Ederson in off the far post.
One criticism of Salah is that compared to the other elite forwards of the era, he didn’t always look good doing it. Neymar or Hazard were elegant, as though they were masters of the ball. Salah could be scruffy and on a bad day, you could be forgiven for thinking he had never kicked a ball before. But this goal was Salah at his very best. Every touch was measured and precise, a series of perfect decisions perfectly executed one after another resulting in a work of art.
No. 1: vs Manchester City - Champions League (2017/18)
I am not sure there are many goals that have felt this good in the moment. This match is in the top 5 or 6 most stressful supporting experiences I can remember along with the Chelsea semi-finals in ‘05 and ’07, Tottenham in the final in 2019, and the Manchester City and Chelsea games in 2013/14. That stress, and the subsequent release of it, is probably why this goal is my favourite Mo Salah goal.
The second leg of the Champions League quarter final at the Etihad. Manchester City were trailing 3-1 on aggregate but applying unrelenting pressure on Liverpool. Manchester City were the dominant team in England that season and would go on to get 100 points in the Premier League. As good as Liverpool would become, this was the team’s first season back in the Champions League and the Reds and not a team challenging for the league. The first hour was like the Alamo, Liverpool were under siege. Liverpool needed a moment; they needed something or someone to release that pressure. When the moment arrived, the Egyptian King was the coolest man in the stadium. Sadio Mane burst into the penalty area and was bundled over, Ederson couldn’t hold on to the loose ball and Salah capitalised. He reacted quickest, rounding Ederson before dinking a composed finish over the despairing Nicolas Otamendi. The away goal sucked the oxygen out of Manchester City and from there, Liverpool were comfortable in reaching the semi-final.
It is easy to say in hindsight that Liverpool’s ascent to the highest honours under Jurgen Klopp was inevitable but that crucial journey from doubters to believers might have taken a bit longer had Liverpool succumbed to the Manchester City onslaught that night. Liverpool stood firm and went toe-to-toe with statistically the best team the country has ever seen and came out on top and the crucial moment in the tie belonged to Salah.
