Salah hat-trick makes mockery of Darwin's Liverpool transfer fee
FT Desk
- Updated: 13 Oct 2022 09:07 BST
- 3 min read
Mo Salah hit a record-breaking hat-trick as Liverpool beat Rangers 7-1 in the Champions League on Wednesday, scoring as many goals in six minutes as the €100 million Darwin Nunez has done all season.
In Nunez's defence, he did get the Reds' third goal in their Group A rout, but it was expertly laid on by Bobby Firmino - his competition at centre-forward who had already scored twice. When Liverpool take on Manchester City on Sunday, there is a fair argument for the Brazilian to get the nod.
Salah replaced Nunez on Wednesday, and took just six minutes and 12 seconds to match Darwin's haul for the club this season. A €50m signing from Roma in 2017, Salah has had a slow start this season by his own high standards, but is now up to eight goals and four assists in 13 games in all competitions with a goal-involvement every 87.8 minutes.
Wedding Crashers - Mo Salah style 👰 🤵♂️ pic.twitter.com/BHZHgrGPMe
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) September 23, 2022
Darwin, who scored home and away against Liverpool in the Champions League last season, is now on four goals and one assist at rate of one every 99.6 minutes - a respectable return, but one that pales in comparison to Salah's.
Klopp: 'Typical Mo'
"Typical Mo," Jurgen Klopp said after the game. "Very important, the whole thing, how the boys adapted to it, to the positions, to the line-up, the reaction of the boys on the pitch, I thought everybody who started tonight played really well, I can't think of one player who didn't have a good game.
"The two kids right and left wing really good, Fabio [Carvalho] and Harvey [Elliott], and when you can change like we did tonight. and the boys come on ready to contribute then things like this can happen."
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Liverpool are off to their worst ever Premier League start under Klopp this season, but this was a morale-boosting win, secured against last season's runners-up in Scotland or not. But if Kopp is to start one, bench one against City on Sunday, it should be Salah getting the run-out.
Salah is twice the player Darwin is and cost half the price.
