From chaos to conviction

When Mohamed Salah swapped Anfield for the Black Sea coast this summer, there were plenty of reasons to wonder how it might go. Trabzonspor's pre-season was a shambles by any measure, one win from their first five matches across all competitions, a 5-0 aggregate hammering by Ferencvaros in the Europa League play-off round, and then the head coach, Fatih Tekke, walking out the door before the campaign had even properly begun. Not exactly the soft landing you'd pick for a 34-year-old arriving at a new club in an unfamiliar league.

Three months on, the picture looks rather different. Salah has not just settled in Turkey, he is rewriting the record books. His ten goal contributions across his first seven Super Lig appearances is a first since records began from the 2014/15 season. He reportedly became the first foreign Trabzonspor player to score in each of their opening three home fixtures since the 2000/01 campaign. The highlight so far? A hat-trick in a 4-0 win over champions Galatasaray, which is the sort of statement performance that tends to travel.

Thomas Reis steadies the ship

It would be wrong to pin the turnaround on Salah alone. Replacement manager Thomas Reis has won both of his opening two matches in charge without conceding a single goal, and that defensive solidity matters as much as what is happening at the other end. Three wins from four since the early-season crisis is a solid return, and the combination of an organised backline and Salah doing Salah things at the top of the pitch gives Trabzonspor something genuinely credible to build on.

Salah's tally now stands at seven goals and three assists from nine appearances in all competitions, and Trabzonspor sit fourth in the Super Lig, just three points behind leaders Galatasaray. Besiktas and Kocaelispor both have a game in hand and could leapfrog them, but even then Trabzonspor would only drop two points off the pace. For a side that finished eight points adrift of the title last season, their best showing since winning the championship in 2022, that proximity to the summit feels meaningful.

A brutal run of fixtures will tell us more

The next few weeks will test everything Trabzonspor have built. In the Europa Conference League they face Freiburg, Hearts of Midlothian and Finnish Veikkausliiga champions Kuopion Palloseura over the coming month, all while navigating league fixtures against Alanyaspor, Besiktas, Gaziantep and Rizespor. That is a punishing stretch for any squad, let alone one that was in freefall not so long ago.

How Salah and his teammates come through that run will tell us whether this is a genuine title push or a bright start that levels off. The form is real, the numbers are historic, and the league table is tantalisingly close at the top. Liverpool fans watching from afar will know better than most just how decisive their former number can be when the stakes are raised. The coming weeks should be rather interesting.