With the 22nd goal of an already extraordinary first season at Liverpool, Mohamed Salah jumped to the top of an elite list of goal-scorers. It was his 19th strike with his left foot, making his first season back in England the joint-most prolific the Premier League has ever seen when it comes to left-footed goals. Only fellow Red Robbie Fowler has scored as many in a single season, and he did so when the top flight had 22 teams and so each side played four extra matches. Salah, though, has equalled the Premier League record with 11 matches to spare in a shorter, 38-game season. His 19 left-footed goals is only one fewer than Swansea City's overall total in the 'Goals For' column, and only two behind seventh-placed Burnley. Goals scored | Premier League 2017/18 This is only the 16th time in Premier League history that a player has made it past 10 left-footed goals in a season, and only the sixth time someone has made it to 15. It has been an astonishing campaign by anyone's standards, let alone for a player only just being given their first proper run at English football having previously been disregarded. But if there was one criticism - though even calling it a criticism seems just a tad harsh - of Salah, it might be that it has been slightly too left-footed. Of the 73 instances of a player scoring 20 or more goals in a Premier League season, Salah's debut campaign at Liverpool is the most left-foot 'heavy'. That is, 86.4 per cent of his goals have come from his left boot - the highest proportion of any 20-goal Premier League season, by some distance. Highest proportion of goals scored with left foot | Premier League seasons Gareth Bale in 2012/13 and Robbie Fowler's 1994/95 come closest to challenging Salah in this regard, but beyond that, the other great left-footed forwards of the Premier League era - Robin van Persie, Daniel Sturridge, Romelu Lukaku and Louis Saha - are all remarkably two-footed. In Van Persie's most prolific season - his final year at Arsenal - he scored 30 goals, but just 17 were with his rocket of a left foot. Meanwhile, he scored 12 with his right; more than right-footers Mario Balotelli, Frank Lampard, Jermaine Defoe, Theo Walcott and Edin Dzeko to name a handful. The presence of Harry Kane in that list is quite something. The current campaign has seen Kane race to 23 league goals, with nine coming via each foot: take away his two penalties and he has had a more effective season with his left than his right. 39.1 per cent of Kane's goals this season have been left-footed Credit: Getty images Kane, a right-footed player who has worked tremendously hard on honing other skills to make him a more complete player, has had the 10th-most left foot-heavy 20-goal season in Premier League history. Right-footers, on the other hand are markedly more one-footed. Of the 73 times a player has scored 20 or more Premier League goals in a season, the most right-footed was Sergio Aguero in 2011/12, when 91.3 per cent of his goals came via his right boot. Even the 10th-most right-footed season saw Andrew Johnson net 81 per cent of his goals with his right. Perhaps left-footed players grow up being 'shown onto to their weaker foot' more often, and so become more accustomed to finding other routes to goal. A player with a decent shot is usually pretty easy to spot, so defenders do all they can to make sure that opponent cannot get a clear sight of goal on their strong foot. pic.twitter.com/hUFiD4YR2T— Mohamed Salah (@22mosalah) February 11, 2018 Teams have obviously tried to get Kane onto his left foot more, but as he becomes more two-footed, he just adapts and scores more with his left. For Salah, meanwhile, the pace at which he can move means defenders have even less chance to get him onto his significantly weaker right. He can burst into half a yard of space with such ease that he gets as many shooting opportunities on his left as he needs. It may have been a one-footed season so far for Salah, but it is frightfully effective, and six months in, nobody has found a way to stop him on his favoured side.
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