How can we quantify the value of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané for Liverpool?

Green laser beams danced across Liverpool attacker Mohamed Salah's face as he stepped up to take Egypt's first penalty. Here is one of the most famous athletes in the world's most popular sport. And now he couldn't even see with his own eyes!

Sadio Mané later claimed, "I was luckier." Senegal's two-leg World Cup playoff victory came after the Africa Cup of Nations Final in February.

It was his second consecutive victory over his Liverpool teammate. Despite the fact that the match was billed as 'Mané v Salah', there may be a larger takeaway from the Senegal vs Egypt triptych.

A takeaway that is particularly relevant to the club they both play for. But the contrast between Mané and Salah was slight but telling.

Sadio Mane and Mo Salah are Liverpool icons

The partnership of Mo Salah and Sadio Mane has been creating magic on the field for the Reds

Despite the fact that the playoffs and AFCON Final were decided on penalties, Senegal dominated in terms of opportunities and possession. Aside from Mané, Egypt faced a constant threat from Watford's Ismala Sarr on the opposite wing, and a defense captained by the heroic Kalidou Koulibaly.

Senegal had a system and a style, as well as varied approaches and playing styles. Egypt, on the other hand, had very little. Omar Marmoush, their main striker, has three goals from 23 games in the Bundesliga.

The midfield could have been made of barbed wire: it wasn't so much a mechanism for utilizing the ball as it was for discouraging it from going anywhere else.

As a result, almost everything Egypt did was channeled via their captain: a guy in whom they have built a heartfelt, if rather bizarre, reliance. Egypt have scored 191 goals since Salah made his debut against Sierra Leone in September 2011, with the Liverpool star scoring or assisting 72 of them (38 percent).

Of course, none of this takes into account the goals Egypt scored when Salah wasn't even on the field after he had been substituted. Goals that could have been prevented if the opposition defense hadn't been so alarmed by Salah's threat that they had three men marking him.

Yes, Mané was luckier than Salah in the lottery of birth, lucky to be surrounded by a golden generation of Senegalese players who can pick up the slack. Players who can keep the level when he is injured or absent, players who score when he does not.

Mané's scoring rate at the international level is lower than at club level, which is telling. Salah, on the other hand, is in the opposite situation.

Now might be a good time to point out that his two most prolific goal-scoring seasons for Liverpool were also the two seasons in which they failed to win anything. The idea is that defining an individual's worth in a team sport is a difficult and inaccurate task.

This is especially true now, as Mané and Salah enter the final year of their Liverpool contracts. All parties involved strive to determine a fair market value for them.

Salah and Mane's future with Liverpool

There are clearly a lot of moving factors here: Players’ age and form, a Liverpool balance sheet still saddled with COVID and pre-COVID debt, the cost of loyalty, etc.

On both sides, there has been a lot of misinformation about this. To begin with, the false notion that Salah and Mané are holding Liverpool Football Club hostage (and that the full name must always be used).

Another false notion is that Luis Daz and Diogo Jota will score the goals. Yet another being that two of the greatest players in the club's history must be sacrificed in order to preserve a sacrosanct financial model.

On the other hand, you get the impression that these are generational talents seeking recognition. Which one do you calculate... exactly how do you do it? What is the next petro-state or doofus-billionaire willing to pay for their prized assets?

With the internal economics of a sport whose internal economics are irreparably tainted? In 2022, what is the going rate for a human being?

And, in the end, both of these arguments are based on the horrible misconception that talent is only a resource. A component that can be bolted on, bolted off, and reattached elsewhere. Greatness necessitates the presence of greatness.

Salah's market value is based not just on his own incredible talent and hard effort, but also on that of Mané, Roberto Firmino, Jürgen Klopp, Virgil van Dijk.

Mané would be a completely different player if he were to leave Liverpool and join Paris Saint-Germain. Not Mané plus Salah, but Mané times Salah, each to the force of the other, is Liverpool's greatest might.

This was never more evident than in Saturday's 5-0 triumph over Watford. Mané and Salah appeared to be talking in a language only they knew, finishing each other's sentences.

If their divergent international experiences have taught us anything, it's that whatever they've accomplished separately, nothing compares to the music they've created together.