Liverpool manager Arne Slot paid tribute to Mohamed Salah after his 250th goal for the club helped stop the rot with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Saturday night.
The Reds came into the match with their Premier League title defence on the ropes after four successive defeats amid a wider run of six losses in seven games in all competitions.
Liverpool's all-time goalscorers
Ian Rush 346
Roger Hunt 285
Mohamed Salah 250
Gordon Hodgson 241
Billy Liddell 228
But Salah’s landmark strike just before half-time, courtesy of a blunder from Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, and Ryan Gravenberch’s deflected effort after the break, earnt the Reds their first league win since September 20.
It has been a difficult start to the season for Salah, who was gifted his goal having been presented with an empty net after a rogue Martinez pass, but he became just the third Reds player to score 250 for the club, following in the footsteps of Ian Rush and Roger Hunt.
Salah's goal was his 188th in the Premier League. He has also scored 11 in the cups, and 51 in Europe.
“That’s almost unbelievable. If you score 250 goals, it is already unbelievable, let alone for one club,” Slot said. “You don’t see that much in football anymore.
“And I think, apart from the goal he scored tonight, he had a very good performance.
“What I also liked is that he didn’t only do his offensive work really well, but he helped the team out defensively as well.
“This combination of things led to the fact that I liked his performance tonight.
“And of course, it’s special for him to score his 250th. For him to score, it’s not even that special, because that’s what we all know he will always do.”
The Dutchman, who was facing the first questions of his Anfield reign, received unequivocal backing from the crowd throughout the match.
“It meant a lot especially because it happened at 0-0. So, not when you are leading and not when you are top of the league, but when you’re in a difficult situation as a club, as a team, and because I’m part, definitely a part of that, it’s also difficult situation for me.
“And then to get the support the players got, but also I got that, is something what makes this club special.
“I think they don’t forget if you’ve been part of something special, and they help you, especially if things are difficult, and that’s what it was.
“The last few weeks, things were difficult. And so they felt, the players, maybe even me, needed a bit of support, and that’s what you get them from these fans.
“I think you always feel pressure if you’re at Liverpool. If you’re leading the table with 15 games to go, you feel pressure.
“And if you are in the run of form that we were in, you feel the pressure.
“But I’ve always felt the support of the fans as long as I’m here, and also in the recent results, I have never felt that there was anything less than it was before.”
Villa hit the woodwork twice inside the opening 20 minutes and things might have been different had one of those efforts gone in, but their four-match winning run ended partly because of Martinez’s error.
Boss Unai Emery said: “We try to play with personality through our structures and through our rules.
“It was easy for Salah. It was a huge mistake, but it was something in our process and my responsibility. I accept it.
“We build the team here through the style we want to keep in our process in the club and our next matches.
“Of course, we must avoid huge mistakes like today. But it is part of our process.
“We are going to analyse and identify how we build in these circumstances for the next matches.
“Through it we are are feeling comfortable and strong through our idea.”
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BRAZIL SQUAD
Alisson (Liverpool), Daniel Fuzato (Roma), Ederson (Man City); Alex Sandro (Juventus), Danilo (Juventus), Eder Militao (Real Madrid), Emerson (Real Betis), Felipe (Atletico Madrid), Marquinhos (PSG), Renan Lodi (Atletico Madrid), Thiago Silva (PSG); Arthur (Barcelona), Casemiro (Real Madrid), Douglas Luiz (Aston Villa), Fabinho (Liverpool), Lucas Paqueta (AC Milan), Philippe Coutinho (Bayern Munich); David Neres (Ajax), Gabriel Jesus (Man City), Richarlison (Everton), Roberto Firmino (Liverpool), Rodrygo (Real Madrid), Willian (Chelsea).
Correspondents
By Tim Murphy
(Grove Press)
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
Liverpool's all-time goalscorers
Ian Rush 346
Roger Hunt 285
Mohamed Salah 250
Gordon Hodgson 241
Billy Liddell 228
