Salah has scored 10 goals + 10 assists this season. The bar that shows attacking balance. And Salah managed to break it already in November. This is his ninth season in which he has broken 10 + 10.
I got carried away and counted the best players in the world by the number of such club seasons. This shows stability, attacking balance, and how many seasons the player has spent at the highest level.
Messi – 17 seasons with 10 goals + 10 assists (13 seasons: with 15 goals + 15 assists)
Suarez – 14 (9)
Neymar – 12 (7)
Ronaldo – 12 (6)
Muller – 11 (7)
Benzema – 9 (5)
Salah – 9 (4)
Ibrahimovic – 9 (3)
Mertens – 9 (2)
Mbappe – 8 (4)
De Bruyne – 8 (4)
Henry – 8 (2)
Lampard – 7 (3)
Rooney – 7 (2)
Del Piero – 7 (2)
Lewandowski – 7 (0)
• I didn’t include Hulk – 12 (6) and Tadic – 8 (6). After all, most or even almost all of their phenomenal seasons were spent at a different, lower level of the championships. But Hulk can already be called the attacking king outside the top leagues.
• Messi is even better than it seems. He has as many as 9 seasons where he scored 20 + 20. As many as 5 seasons with 25 + 25. And he is the only player in history who scored 30 + 30 – and did it twice!
• Only three players, not counting Messi, scored more than one season with 20 + 20. Suarez did it 5 times, Neymar 3 times and Lampard (a midfielder!) twice.
• Thomas Müller is the most balanced attacking player in the world. He has a close number of goals and assists in almost every season.
• Mbappe is the only player other than Messi to have achieved 25+25 in one season
