Sublime Salah - The key to future success at Liverpool

Mohamed Salah scored again, well, that's not news for Liverpudlians anymore, the Egyptian has been doing so with an alarming regularity all season, that he scored 4 and assisted the other in a 5-0 victory over Watford is the real news.

He was sublime right from the get-go, his beautiful shimmy in the fourth minute leaving Briton on his backside before dispatching clinically into the back of the net. He was the main scourge for the Hornets' defence all game, all the good work Liverpool did, went through him and by the end of the day, he was left apologising to Orestis Karnezis, the Watford goalie, for embarrassing him.

Salah was that stupendous on the day and when it's remembered that he was obtained for a fee of about £37 million in this age of wild transfer fees, credit has to go to Klopp and his team for what must be considered a real snip.

Numbing Philippe Coutinho's departure

Coutinho's departure didn't make as much of a difference thanks to Salah's form

This continued brilliance from Salah is something that has helped to put the minds of Liverpool fans at rest as one thing that worried them was how Phillipe Coutinho was going to be properly replaced and how that affects the team Jurgen Klopp was supposed to be building for a tilt at the title if his stardust continued looking elsewhere for fulfillment of their dreams.

Replacing star players has not always been easy for Liverpool in times past as they habitually lost good players from positions of strength and ended up wallowing down below until another one came along, but Jurgen Klopp has made the changing of the guard look easy, no doubt helped by his time at Dortmund, a club used to witnessing bigger rivals poach off its best players.

The arrival of Salah and the sustained excellence he has displayed all season has been solely down to the German's enduring abilities to bring the best out of players and work out a scheme that harnesses their collective strengths.

Jurgen Klopp seems to be on a mission

Man on a mission

However, despite all of Salah's good work, the Merseysiders have had to endure a disappointing season by their standards, getting eliminated from both cups by sides they should be beating, their very glaring defensive frailties also making any hopes of fighting Manchester City for the title anything but a pipe dream.

The only trophy they're still in with a shout of winning is the UEFA Champions League but those hopes are far-fetched as it currently stands, and only a brave man would tip Liverpool to win the Champions League when compared to the behemoths still left in the tournament.

Thus, the stark truth is they are likely to end this season like they ended the past 5 seasons, trophyless.

However, Jurgen Klopp has been slowly building a team that looks capable of writing off that lingering notion of failure and one capable of fighting Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side for the title.

Plugging important holes

Virgil van Dijk's arrival is sure to bolster Liverpool in the years to come

The main areas of concern in the team has been identified by the German and if anything has been learnt from the Sky Blue juggernaut that has rolled over nearly all in its way in the Premier League, it's that finishing a season well and complementing that team with excellent additions in troublesome positions is the key to success.

The troublesome positions have been gradually ticked off the book with the arrival of Virgil van Dijk in January, and with that of Naby Keita next season, the midfield and centre-back positions look a bit more assured with those two excellent players.

But if there are excellent players at the club, the bad news is there are excellent players scattered all around the Premier League as well, and a player that stands heads and shoulders above everyone else needs to be owned if those dreams are to be made a reality.

The good news is that Liverpool have that player in Mo Salah. City, for all of their brilliance, still rely heavily on Kevin De Bruyne, and the Belgian is one key reason why they are so far ahead of the competition, their undisputed stardust.

This is exactly where Salah comes in, the Egyptian has been the difference for Liverpool on so many occasions, but due to the lingering faults they possess in other areas, his good work hasn't really borne much fruit, but with a better support cast around him and a season of experience in the league behind him as well, the league title they've dreamed of for so long on these shores might just be closer than they imagine.