Mohamed Salah’s got so bored at Liverpool that he’s invented a physics-defying pass
The art of keeping yourself entertained, just like dressing yourself for a smart-casual event and the right way to chop garlic, is an underrated quality for a human being to possess.
This is usually more of an art than a science, considering every person has a different threshold for boredom.
Take Mohamed Salah, for example.
Salah has spent the 2024-25 season on a one-man mission to bring the Premier League trophy to Liverpool and win their first league title with fans inside the stadium since Germany became reunified.
The Egypt forward now has 25 goals and 17 assists in the league following his pinpoint pass that allowed Alexis Mac Allister to complete the Reds’ 2-0 win over Newcastle on Wednesday night.
And, with Arsenal a mammoth 13 points behind Liverpool with a third of the campaign still to play, Salah realised he’d have to keep things interesting for himself or die of boredom by Easter.
With Newcastle beaten and mentally back on Tyneside, Salah’s synapses twitched. An outrageous outside-of-the-foot pass to Trent Alexander-Arnold was the prelude for further invention.
As play swept from the Anfield Road End towards the Kop, the 32-year-old dribbled towards the Newcastle area as Lewis Hall desperately retreated backwards.
Realising his opponent had gifted him the space necessary, Salah skimmed another outside-of-the-boot pass that brilliantly arced its way around Hall.
Taking three players out of the game with one swish of his boot, the pass was on the kind of pathway that would’ve caused Albert Einstein to pack it all in and Isaac Newton to reassess his relationship with the apple.
Sadly, the middle earth legs of Luis Diaz were unable to extend themselves quickly enough to ensure the pass was upgraded to an assist, instead whacking the ball into Nick Pope’s side-netting.
As the dust settled on another Liverpool victory, Salah told TNT Sports that he believes this season is his best-ever at Anfield.
“I think it’s my best season,” Salah said. “So far I think it’s my best season because I make the other players around me better — that’s what I feel.
“I know their games, all the numbers around all the players, it’s going to be higher than other seasons, plus my assists is higher which means I help them a lot.
“If you look in that direction, Cody [Gakpo], Lucho [Diaz], other players, their season is better than others and I think that’s it’s my best season because I make players around me better.”
Quizzed on what he would like his legacy to be like Liverpool, the forward added: “I want fans to remember that I gave it all to the fans, I gave it all to the city. I was here, I wasn’t lazy, I just enjoyed my football and gave it all.
“I think that’s what the city is about — they give you love and you have a connection with them because you give your all. I just want them to remember that I was here for eight years and I gave it all.”
With a hand and four fingers on the Premier League trophy and that contract still stubbornly unsigned, every Salah appearance these days has the feel of an exhibition you must see before it leaves town.
With acres of the campaign remaining, the Egyptian can set his sights on boosting his trophy haul and finding new ways to elicit wonder from the adoring Anfield faithful.
Then, who knows? Perhaps somebody can show him the correct way to chop garlic?
By Michael Lee
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