Who is Liverpool's Top Player for Goal Involvements?

Mohamed Salah leads Liverpool's standings for both goals and assists this season. But who is most involved in the build up to goals?

The term ‘goal involvements’ is becoming more common in discussions around football. It is a short hand way of totalling how many goals and assists a player has delivered.

For Liverpool, Mohamed Salah has no equal in 2024/25. Cody Gakpo is second in the Reds’ squad for goal involvements this term, with 16; his Egyptian colleague has both scored (21) and set up (17) more than that for a total of 38.

In the Premier League, Salah has already enjoyed one of the best campaigns for goal involvements in the modern era of English football, even if he does not kick a ball again this season. Despite being only half way through Arne Slot’s rookie year in charge, Salah’s total of 31 is the joint-36th most a player has recorded since 1992.

The 32-year-old has already matched or bettered the best campaigns offered by players of the stature of Dennis Bergkamp, Eric Cantona, Romelu Lukaku, Wayne Rooney and Heung-min Son to name but five. The 38-game record of 44 goal involvements, jointly held by Erling Haaland and Thierry Henry, is a very realistic target.

Salah can not reach such heights alone. The veteran has teammates who cover his share of the defensive work, easing the burden on his legs. Almost all of the amazing things he does with a football are only able to occur because a teammate gets it to him, frequently in the final third. No other player in Europe’s big five leagues has received as many progressive passes as Salah in 2024/25.

Thanks to Opta’s match centres, it’s possible to see which players have been involved in the build up to every Liverpool goal this season, Salah-powered or otherwise. As an example, the below video shows Gakpo’s goal against Manchester United from the relevant Analyst page. Alexis Mac Allister got the assist, with the possession sequence also involving Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Ryan Gravenberch.

By collating this data for every game, we can see which players contribute most often to goal build up, who starts scoring moves most frequently, and who plays a part in goals which give Liverpool the lead, the best goals of all. The only addition I’ve made to the Opta sequence data is crediting a player who wins a penalty. We can also test if the Reds adhere to analytics pioneer Charles Reep’s discovery that “over 80 per cent of goals result from moves of three passes or less”.