Mohamed Salah has inspired Premier League humiliations of Manchester United before. Liverpool fans will hope he piles on the misery this Sunday at Anfield.
Even on his worst days, the last player Manchester United would want to come up against now is Mohamed Salah. So, with the Egyptian currently in the form of his life, the fear bubbling at Old Trafford has probably never been more intense.
United face a daunting trip to Anfield on Sunday to play their bitter rivals Liverpool. If Ruben Amorim’s men are going into the game engulfed by doom and gloom, Arne Slot’s Reds are full of life, their outlook as exciting as United’s is bleak.
The Red Devils have never faced Liverpool after Matchday 10 of a Premier League season and been so far down the table; they head into the weekend 14th but could be 15th by kick-off. And having lost four of their past five top-flight games, relegation is being spoken about at Old Trafford as a genuine threat.
League leaders Liverpool will be desperate to pile on the misery this weekend. Even without Salah, they’d have more than enough to do so. But with their talisman in irrepressible form, Reds fans will undoubtedly be getting their hopes up for a big score.
After all, Mohamed Salah loves playing against Manchester United.
Salah’s Record Against Man Utd
Presumably United fans are simply avoiding the internet at the moment for fear of reading anything about their club. But if any of you are here right now, consider this your warning to look away…
Salah’s record against United makes for remarkable reading and highlights just how much he relishes this fixture.
The headline fact is that Salah has both scored (12) and assisted (6) more goals against United than any other player in Premier League history.
Those 12 goals are the most he’s recorded against any Premier League club, unsurprisingly, while no other Liverpool player past or present can match his 18 goal involvements in this fixture. In fact, no other current or former Liverpool player has managed 18 goal involvements against any single opponent in the Premier League era.
Salah’s record against United is such that only four players in Premier League history have tallied more goal involvements against a single opponent for the same team: Harry Kane (22 for Tottenham vs Leicester), Wayne Rooney (21 for Man Utd vs Newcastle), Frank Lampard (20 for Chelsea vs Bolton) and Thierry Henry (19 for Arsenal vs Middlesbrough). Even considering United’s current malaise, we can all agree Salah’s haul has come against a greater standard of opposition than the others’ totals.
But going back to goals specifically, no other current Liverpool player has more than four Premier League strikes against United for the Reds (Luis Díaz – 4). Along with Salah, the only others to score more than four times for Liverpool in clashes with United are Steven Gerrard (8) and Robbie Fowler (6).
Salah’s record isn’t only impressive on the Liverpool side of the divide, however. He’s scored twice as many goals in this fixture than any United player (Wayne Rooney – 6).
But what makes Salah’s record in this fixture even more interesting is that he didn’t record a single goal involvement in any of his first four against United in the league. So, his 18 Premier League goals and assists have come in his last 10 appearances.
In English football’s biggest rivalry, Salah stands head and shoulders above the rest in the Premier League era.
Salah’s Record vs Man Utd at Anfield
Sunday’s meeting will, of course, take place at Anfield, where United haven’t won in the Premier League since January 2016.
Perhaps United fans will take a degree of comfort in the fact Salah’s individual record against the Red Devils is actually better at Old Trafford than it is on Merseyside.
Nevertheless, he still averages more than one goal involvement per game against United in the league at Anfield, with his five goals and three assists coming from seven games.
What? We only said a degree of comfort…
There’s actually as many as six instances of Liverpool players recording more Premier League goal involvements vs single opponents at Anfield, and Salah accounts for three of them.
He’s recorded nine at home to both Manchester City and Arsenal, and 11 when Newcastle have been the visitors.
Salah’s also contributed to some brutal defeats of United at Anfield. He scored twice and set up another two in the 7-0 drubbing in March 2023, when the Reds recorded their biggest ever competitive win over their bitter rivals.
And a little under a year earlier, Salah scored twice and got an assist in a 4-0 home thrashing of United.
And yet, it seems to be that he especially enjoys playing the role of chief antagonist at Old Trafford…
Salah’s Record vs Man Utd at Old Trafford
Salah hasn’t just inspired brutal defeats of United in L4; there’s been several in M16 over the past few years as well.
Most notable among them from Salah’s perspective would be the 5-0 demolition job in October 2021, in which the Egypt star scored a hat-trick and got an assist.
Then, earlier this season in September, he set up the first two and then finished United off in a 3-0 win at Old Trafford.
That made Salah the only player in Premier League history to have registered 3+ goal involvements away to Man Utd on two occasions.
That most recent goal took him to seven Premier League strikes at Old Trafford, the record for an opposition player – he initially took the record for his own with the late penalty he converted in the 2-2 draw last April.
The only other Liverpool player to score more than three times at Old Trafford in the league is Gerrard (5), while Salah has netted there at least three more times than anyone else (not just former/current Liverpool players).
Salah’s Win Record vs Man Utd
It might actually come as a surprise that Salah’s win rate against Man Utd in the Premier League is only 50%.
But in the grand scheme of things, that is a pretty good record. After all, there are 63 players who’ve faced Man Utd five times or more in the Premier League and won at least half of those matches; there are 1,202 players who’ve faced Man Utd on at least five occasions and won less than half.
There’s only been 13 players of a possible 507 to boast better than a 50% win rate against United in the Premier League from at least 10 meetings, so Salah’s record (7/14) shouldn’t be underestimated.
Just two Liverpool players can better Salah’s seven Premier League wins over United, with Gerrard (10) and Jamie Carragher (9) somewhat unsurprisingly leading the way – but it’s worth noting that their respective win rates in this fixture of 33.3% and 32.1% were significantly poorer.
Salah currently ranks seventh for win rate in Premier League games for Liverpool against United (min. five appearances), but only two of those above him made it to 10 appearances; Alisson has won 58.3% (7/12) and Andy Robertson has won 53.9% (7/13).
It’s fair to say that the chances of Sunday’s game being a bleak occasion for Man Utd are pretty high, at least in part because of Salah.
He’s been the inspiration behind some of United’s most humiliating results in the Premier League era, and he’s arguably never been in the kind of form he’s in now.
It won’t be a shock if Salah ensures Man Utd plumb new depths this weekend.
Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
