Diogo Jota may not be able to match Mohamed Salah’s goal totals this season, but there is another way to assess his contribution to Liverpool’s success.
Mohamed Salah will almost certainly be Liverpool’s top scorer for the fifth season in a row. With the rest of the season still ahead of him, he’s already scored 28 goals, nine more than his nearest rival, Diogo Jota.
But, believe it or not, there is another way to measure goal scoring. And it may give Liverpool’s other forwards a chance to compete with Salah.
We’re talking about the significance of a player’s goals. Strikes that win games, establish a lead, create a two-goal cushion, or pin back the opposition can be considered more important than those that arrive after Liverpool is already two up.
We already know Salah is the most prolific, but does he have the most’significant goals’ — our crude metric based on the first four categories listed above? Salah (28), Jota (19), Sadio Mané (14), Roberto Firmino, and Takumi Minamino are the Reds’ top five scorers (both nine).
Diogo Jota – 94.8% significant goals
Jota almost always scores big goals. While his 78th-minute goal against Forest was his first of the season, he’s opened the scoring on eight occasions (42.1%), doubled Liverpool’s lead five times (26.3%), and equalised three times (15.8 per cent).
Not to mention the League Cup thriller against Leicester City, in which he rallied his team after the visitors had taken a 3-1 lead.
In fact, his only ‘insignificant’ goal this season was an emphatic strike at Goodison Park that completed a 4-1 rout. In general, his goals are game-changing moments.
Sadio Mané has 78.6 percent of the vote.
Mané is up next, though he’s a long way behind Jota’s dizzying pace. Again, he’s only scored one goal (in the first half against West Ham), but it’s one of six times he’s put Liverpool ahead (42.9 per cent).
Mané has given Liverpool a two-goal lead four times (2.6%), including the Champions League home game against Atlético Madrid last month, and ignited his team’s comeback against Norwich City last month with a spectacular bicycle kick. Three late goals (21.4%) in Liverpool’s two comfortable victories over Leeds United, on the other hand, merely added gloss.
71.4 percent for Mohamed Salah
It’s worth noting that Salah is the clear leader in match-winners, converting crucial penalties away at Atlético and at home against Aston Villa, but he’s only tied with Jota in goals that give Liverpool the lead (eight) or level the scores (three).
Similarly, the pair has roughly the same proportion of ‘lead-doublers’ (Salah 25 per cent, Jota 26.3 per cent).
However, nearly 30% of Salah’s goals come when the game is effectively over. It certainly helps that Jürgen Klopp frequently leaves him on the field to aid his pursuit of individual accolades.
