When Darwin Núñez rolled the ball across the penalty area for Mohamed Salah to sweep Liverpool level against Brighton last weekend, he became the first Reds player in the Premier League era to provide seven straight assists for one teammate across all competitions. This was his fifth for Salah in the league alone, the most assists exclusively for a single player in the competition’s history.
The relationship goes both ways. Prior to the trip to Tottenham at the end of last month, Salah and Núñez were creating for chance for one another every 29 minutes on average when both were on the pitch, the best ratio of any duo to have played at least 100 minutes together (via The Athletic).
It may be a surprise to learn, in light of these statistics, that one Liverpool partnership is actually even more productive, but has simply received next-to-no attention up to this point. Since the beginning of the calendar year, Salah and Núñez have exchanged 77 passes, created a cumulative 15 chances for one another and linked up for three goals.
But in the same period, Cody Gakpo, a $53m (£44m/€51m) January signing from PSV, has exchanged 105 passes with Salah, while combining for 26 chances and four goals, via The Athletic.
While Gakpo has occasionally been stationed on the left wing, he’s mostly featured in a false-nine role as the apparent heir to Roberto Firmino, who departed the club in the summer at the end of his contract.
We’ve seen before just how devastating the results can be when a facilitator in the center-forward position combines with a goalscoring winger. Since 1964, only Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush (48) and Kevin Keegan and John Toshack (45) have combined for more Liverpool goals than Firmino and Salah (36).
But even outside Anfield, you can look to the example of Harry Kane and Son-Heung min, especially under José Mourinho, when Kane often played more like a number 10 than an out-and-out striker, and Son was typically the one running in-behind as the Englishman played defense-splitting passes. Between Son’s arrival at Spurs in 2015 and Kane’s departure for Bayern Munich this summer, they linked up for 47 goals, more than any other duo in Premier League history, and 21 of those came in 2020/21 and 2021/22.
There’s also Karim Benzema and Vinícius Jr, who were devastatingly effective under Carlo Ancelotti before the former decided to join Saudi Pro League side Al-Ittihad in June. At their peak in the 2021/22 season, when Real Madrid won La Liga and beat Liverpool in the Champions League final, Benzema and Vinicius netted a combined 66 goals, while also notching 35 assists. The Frenchman excelled at dropping deep to form the link between midfield and attack, while the Brazilian found his goalscoring touch with spectacular results.
Gakpo and Salah have a way to go before they can hit the kind of heights, but they should able to rekindle their still-fledgling partnership later this month when the 24-year-old returns from injury. He’s missed the last two club games, and the Netherlands’ international fixtures, but Jürgen Klopp said before the break that there’s a ‘good chance’ he’ll return when the domestic action resumes in his final pre-match press conference before the break.
While everyone is looking to Salah and Núñez to produce explosive results, it may actually be Salah and Gakpo who emerge as the leaders of arguably the most formidable attack in world football. The early signs are already there.
