Mo Salah, Mo Salah, running down the wing. A familiar sight for Kopites and a familiar song on the Kop. Liverpool FC’s Egyptian King began his eighth season as a Red by scoring yet again in all three of our opening Premier League games of the season.

Watching on from the bench at Portman Road was Harvey Elliott, but that was an unusual position for him to be in. During the previous two seasons the Reds no.19 made 99 appearances for LFC - the vast majority of his 120 first-team games at the time of writing.

When he originally arrived from Fulham FC in September 2019 he was viewed as a right winger, a back-up for Salah and potentially a long-term replacement. But under Jürgen Klopp he was developed into an attacking midfielder who can play in the same team as Mo.

The statistics show that Elliott and Salah have been on the pitch at the same time on 85 occasions for the Redmen. Harvey has only played alongside Virgil van Dijk (90) more often and prefers to play in central areas.

“I think the number ten position is my favourite,” he says. “I prefer that to box-to-box, which is a lot of hard work with the constant up and down. If I have to do it, then I will do it, no problem. But in terms of a preference I’d say playing as a number 10.”

Whether he has played as a 10 or a box-to-box eight, Elliott has usually operated on the right-hand side of the pitch. Being able to cut inside and shoot with his left foot has resulted in some beautiful goals against AFC Bournemouth, Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, Crystal Palace FC, Manchester United FC and Tottenham Hotspur FC. It has also led to him striking up a good relationship with Salah.

Four of Elliott’s 10 goals for Liverpool FC have been assisted by Salah and when Harvey scored his first UEFA Champions League goal, to complete a stunning 7-1 win at Ibrox against Rangers FC in October 2022, it was Mo who stood on the halfway line with his arms on Elliott’s shoulders like a proud dad as they awaited a VAR review before it was given.

So when Elliott is asked who is his mentor at Liverpool FC it doesn’t take him long to respond.

“I think it would be Mo,” he says. “I feel the connection is there. I feel like we have a strong friendship as well. And whenever I give the ball to Mo in a scoring position, I feel like 95% of the time he's going to score.

“So it's just one of those situations where you have a player that good to the right of you, and you know he's in a position where you can score, so you just pass him the ball. But at the same time, he tells me to shoot and he passes it to me to shoot sometimes. So we sometimes exchange passes and that gives me confidence.

“He is an inspiration not only to us, but I feel to people at many clubs. His personal achievements and what he's achieved here is just every kid’s dream and to have someone around like that who only wants the best for you, and who will go all day trying to make you better as a person and as a player, is just great.”

Salah’s goal at Portman Road was his 212th for the Reds and, having earlier assisted Diogo Jota for the opener, took his goal contributions to 300 in 350 appearances for Liverpool FC. Incredible number for someone who has mainly operated as a wide player.

He returned after the summer break with a fresh trim, topped the pre-season six-minute race fitness test at the AXA Training Centre and the 32-year-old’s fitness has impressed Arne Slot: “If I see what he does to keep his body as it is to be ready to play every game, then I think there are many more years inside of him to play,” said the head coach.

But when it is put to Elliott that perhaps we will see ‘Salah 2.0’ for Liverpool FC this season, he disagrees.

“No, I think you're just going to see Mo Salah to be honest,” he replies. “The numbers that he's put up season after season are ridiculous and you can never write him off. I don't feel like Salah 2.0 is the best way of putting it.

“Mohamed Salah is Mohamed Salah. He's always going to be great and he's going to be great for many kids to look up to in years to come. The things he's achieved at this club and for his own personal career as well, it's been crazy and quite frankly, without him, we would not have succeeded many times. He has got us out of a lot of trouble.

“I feel like this season, you can see it in the way he is and his physique…from early in pre-season, you could see that he’s firing and he's ready to go.”

After scoring in the 2-0 win at Ipswich Town FC, Salah was keen to emphasise that the team always comes first. It was a great start, but with a new era underway at Anfield it is early days when trying to assess just what Liverpool FC might be capable of achieving this season.

If Slot’s side can build on last season’s progress then Kopites can dare to dream of silverware, but with Manchester City FC and Arsenal FC also starting their campaign with relatively comfortable 2-0 wins against Chelsea FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers FC it looks like challenging last season’s top two won’t be any easier.

“Yes, it's very hard, especially with City, but not only those guys,” admits Elliott. “With every team in the Prem it is difficult. Every team in the league deserves to be there. And they're there for one reason, because they are great teams and they have a great style of play.

“For us it is just making sure we break them down and keep taking it game by game, especially with the Champions League this season as well. We know there’s going to be a few more extra really tough games that we need to prepare for. But as I said, we just need to keep taking it game by game.”