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Mohamed Salah might now be over seven years into his Liverpool career but he continues to break records on an almost weekly basis.
Now boasting 165 Premier League goals, in recent matches he has overtaken both Jermain Defoe and Robbie Fowler in the all-time charts.
However, the forward could potentially be set for a Premier League first this weekend when the Reds return to action after the November international break.
It is not beyond the realms of possibility that he will captain Liverpool in the English top-flight for the first time away at Southampton.
The 32-year-old was promoted to the Reds’ leadership group by Jurgen Klopp in the summer of 2023 following the departures of Jordan Henderson and James Milner.
With Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold serving as captain and vice-captain respectively, he completes the five-man senior group alongside Andy Robertson and Alisson Becker.
Consequently, he has captained Liverpool from the start in the absence of the aforementioned quartet on two previous occasions
in last November’s League Cup fourth round and Europa League group victories over AFC Bournemouth and LASK Linz.
Robertson is the current third-choice captain, having skipped the Reds from the start on six previous occasions, while Alisson has donned the armband three times as fourth-choice.
When all five members of the leadership group are absent from the Liverpool starting XI, the Reds’ longest-serving player instead captains the team.
With Van Dijk starting all of Liverpool’s Premier League and Champions League fixtures so far this season, it is only in the League Cup where captaincy duties have been handed over temporarily so far this season.
Joe Gomez was named captain for the third round win over West Ham, as the club’s longest-serving player, while Robertson wore it away at Brighton in the fourth round.
But after the Dutchman withdrew from the Netherlands squad on ‘medical grounds’, it remains to be seen if he will be fit for the trip to Southampton.
The Reds have confirmed that they will assess Van Dijk at the AXA Training Centre this week, with a stand-in needing to step up if he is unable to start at St. Mary’s.
Alexander-Arnold is also an injury doubt after suffering a low grade hamstring injury against Aston Villa prior to the international break
Barring the defender suffering any issue in Scotland’s Nations League clash with Poland, Robertson is not an injury doubt as things stand.
However, Arne Slot has been rotating the Scot and Kostas Tsimikas at left-back for the majority of the season.
From Liverpool’s last 13 matches since their Champions League campaign got underway in mid-September, Robertson has started seven matches while Tsimikas has started six.
So, if the Greek was given the nod to start against Southampton and Van Dijk, Alexander-Arnold and Alisson were all absent from the starting XI, Salah would captain the Reds for the first time in the Premier League.
The Egypt captain previously made headlines back in December 2020 when he was overlooked as captain for a Champions League clash with Midtjylland
Salah
"Honestly, I was very disappointed," he said in an interview with Spanish news outlet AS at the time.
"I was expecting to be the captain. But it's a manager's decision, so I accept it."
Jurgen Klopp would later admit he made a mistake by handing Alexander-Arnold the armband, but only because he intended it to be worn by the club’s longest-serving player involved in the game - which would have been Divock Origi.
Klopp said in December 2020
"I didn't feel or do feel the importance of being captain
"Yes, we have a captain like Hendo and that is important, but to be a captain for one game. I didn't realise how important that can be to players because in this world now, everything is a big story.”
"I didn't realise it was that big a story for Trent. The rule here is there is a players' committee and it is Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Virgil van Dijk and Gini Wijnaldum.”
“There are pretty much the four captains. You don't need four but if Hendo is not playing then Milly, if both are not playing then Virgil or Gini. If they all cannot play then it is usually the guy the longest at the club.”
"That was, in my understanding and how I saw it, was Trent. I don't mean the youth career, the professional career. Someone told me after it should have been Divock Origi and that was my fault because of being out on loans and stuff like that.
"So I didn't make it that complicated, I just gave Trent the armband. And I spoke to Mo about it after the game and when I realised it didn't work out that well, I clarified that and he said it again in the interview, so not a problem for me.”
"He said he was disappointed and I didn't do it on purpose, I just did what I did. If I made a mistake then it was that Divock Origi was not the captain."
With it clear how much such honours mean to Salah, it would certainly be a proud day for the Egyptian should he get to don the armband and lead Liverpool out
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