Liverpool confirmed Mohamed Salah as a Liverpool player on Friday morning in a £36.9 million deal.
That could be bad news for the rest of the league.
Liverpool scored 78 goals last season in the Premier League, the fourth-most in English football's top flight, with an attack of Roberto Firmino, Philippe Coutinho and Sadio Mane, supported by Adam Lallana.
In Salah, it has added a nimble winger who can both score and assist, with 15 goals and 11 assists for A.S. Roma last season.
The Egyptian is far from the player he was at Chelsea, when he flitted in and out of the starting lineup. He returns a more mature, more dynamic and more intelligent footballer.
Where Salah will fit into Liverpool's starting XI remains to be seen but he gives manager Jurgen Klopp a surfeit of attacking options. Salah could play on the right or left of Liverpool's front three or even through the middle, if Klopp decides to use the same fluid formation he employed last season.
Of course, Liverpool has had great forward lines in the past. In 2013-14 it fielded the devastating combination of Luis Suarez, Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge and scored 101 goals in 38 league games. It also conceded 50 and lost the Premier League title to Manchester City by two points.
It was a similar story last season, when Liverpool conceded 42 goals—the most of any club that finished in the top four. Before Christmas, it had appeared primed for a genuine title challenge.
Even running back through the 1990s, when it could field luminous attacking talents like Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen, Liverpool's verve going forward was counterbalanced by poor defenses and perceived mental weakness.
With Salah it adds goals, assists and another threat to worry opposition defenses. Klopp's task—as it has been for almost every other manager since Kenny Dalglish won it its last title in 1989-90, before the Premier League even existed—is to add a hard outer shell over the extant silk the club already possesses. Maybe then, the long-awaited first Premier League title will finally arrive.
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