Mohamed Salah is still the main man at Liverpool, writes LEWIS STEELE

Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes, like most of us at St Mary's, had lost his battle against the weather. His usually immaculate combover took on a life of its own and the Reds' transfer chief looked frozen as he chatted with friends in the posh seats.

But on the pitch, his star man Mohamed Salah made fun of everyone shivering in the stands as he took off his shirt and flexed his abs at the traveling Kop.

This is an all-weather player for any occasion. Whether Liverpool need a goal to turn a poor performance into a win against relegation fodder or need a star performance to topple a title rival, Salah is still the man.

So after two more goals here, the fifth straight game in which he has scored, Salah further strengthened his hand at the negotiating table when it comes to his new contract. Judging from this season's results, Liverpool simply cannot let him sail off into the sunset just yet.

If Hughes and the Reds top brass couldn't see this from the stands, Salah's stats speak for themselves: 18 games this season, 12 goals, 10 assists. This match marked a century of away goals for the club and took his total tally to 223 at Liverpool and around 300 including his former teams.

As far as modern players go, he makes a stronger case every week to be their best in recent memory. Very few in the history of the Premier League can change the outcome of matches – and perhaps title races – as Salah continues to do in his mid-30s.

To put it bluntly, without Salah, Liverpool would not have an eight-point lead in the league. No chance. This victory was another example of that.

Arne Slot's men were far from their best and Southampton probably deserved more than the loss they ended up with. Alex McCarthy made plenty of saves, but Saints otherwise looked quite strong – and Salah had a quiet afternoon.

But the best players show up when it matters, and that's what Salah did here, with an excellent first goal – whether he intended it to turn out this way is open to question, but the Egyptian deserves the benefit of the doubt – and a clinical penalty for winning the match.

Without Salah, Liverpool would have flown back to Merseyside empty-handed and just five points ahead, which could have been reduced to just two next Sunday when Manchester City are in town. Instead, they are eight up and that could be double figures this time next week, at least for Pep Guardiola's men.

But the big mystery is what happens next. Within 37 days, Salah can legally talk to foreign clubs about the possibility of joining them for free this summer. In six months he could play his last game in a Liverpool shirt.

Yes, he is their highest-paid player with £350,000 a week – plus a plethora of bonuses – but exceptions are necessary with this once-in-a-generation star.

Once the Reds' top flight warms up from this blustery afternoon on the south coast, they need to take the stats above and make the numbers work to get Salah to sign a new contract.