Liverpool's Mohamed Salah is the best collaborator in the Premier League
The enduring nature of strike partnerships has waned due to team formations moving away from a rigid 4-4-2 and the steady increase in allowed substitutions.
But the ability of players to combine with teammates, both as a chance provider and chance taker, is paramount to the success of their side.
Changing fashion and laws may preclude a modern-day version of Toshack and Keegan, Rush and Dalglish, Dougan and Richards, or Shearer and Sutton dominating the top-flight headlines.
However, striking partnerships are as important, if not more so, than ever. They’ve simply become more commonplace, swapping a guaranteed star billing from the first minute to the 90th for briefer cameo appearances split into bite-sized chunks.
Multi-faceted pairings crucial to a title challenge
Five substitutions from nine nominated players have greatly increased the striking permutations available to a coach for in game tweaks and this presents numerous different problems for the opposition defence to defuse, as well as reducing the workload on present-day attackers.
The 100 most productive attacking duos between 2017/18 and 2022/23 have created 0.17 expected goals for every 90 minutes of pitch time they share. These elite duos create a chance every 90 minutes and on average these scoring opportunities are of high quality, 0.16 xG per attempt.
Unsurprisingly, the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City have duos that appear frequently in the top 100, 18 and 20 times respectively. There’s then a sharp drop off to Tottenham who make the list on ten occasions, mostly Son and the now departed Kane, followed by Manchester United and Arsenal on 7 each.
Liverpool wrestled the title away from Manchester City in 2019/20 with four prominent dual purpose attacking combinations. Salah and Firmino, Alexander-Arnold and Firmino, Firmino and Mane and Mane and Salah. The Reds also ran City close in 2018/19 and 2021/22 assisted respectively by three and four top 100 ranked duos.
Last season Arsenal’s Saka, Odegaard, Jesus and Martinelli combined for five top 100 duos as a rare Gunners title tilt only ran out of steam in the closing weeks of the season.
If you want to sustain a title challenge against a Guardiola led City, loading up on multi-faceted offensive pairings should come high up on the agenda.
Salah a star collaborator
The undoubted star of the top 100 collaborative attacking pairs over the last six completed seasons has been Mohamed Salah. He’s appeared in successful pairings a league high 13 times, two more than Raheem Sterling.
And that's despite some recent news from one of his former team mates.
Salah has shone brightly as a provider or a taker when combining with Mane, Alexander-Arnold and Firmino, before seamlessly forming new connections as Liverpool moved on to Diogo Jota, Cody Gakpo, Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez.
The accompanying cast has gradually changed over the last six completed seasons at Anfield, but Salah has remained an enduring constant. Which brings us to 2023/24.
We’re just under a third of the way into the campaign, but Salah is tearing up the record books by continuing his productive partnerships, most notably with Darwin Nunez, even if the latter doesn’t always hit the target.
The tweet below highlights the top 20 pairings from 2023/24 so far, taken before Liverpool's game with Luton.
As a group there’s little difference between the top 100 from the last 6 seasons and the pacesetters in 2023/24.
Nunez and Salah a dream tandem
Productivity and chance quality is similar, they are playing together for an average of 55 minutes per available league game, but it is the Salah/Nunez collaboration that has been hugely fruitful.
The pair had already combined for over three expected goals in just under 400 minutes, and while their 0.7 combined xG/90 will inevitably fall from the stratospheric heights, the two in tandem have had a purple-patch to begin the 2023/24 campaign.
The two continued their prolific pairing on Sunday, Nunez supplying Salah for the opening goal against Brentford, keeping the Reds within a point of Manchester City, level with Arsenal and a point ahead of Tottenham.
All three title challengers enter the international break a respectful distance behind City in final table simulations. City win the title in 68 simulations out of every 100, Arsenal and Liverpool are each successful 13 times and Tottenham win out on just three occasions.
And each face challenges to sustain their diverse attacking combinations.
Arsenal have started slowly after a fine 2022/23, Tottenham’s attacking tandems are dominated by currently injured players and Liverpool may soon need to negotiate up to four games without their talismanic Egyptian because of the African Cup of Nations.
But it is still the Merseyside team, helped by their loaded forward line, who are likely to run City closet in 2023/24, and the pair meet for the first time this season straight after the international break.
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