Mohamed Salah has been in a league of his own so far this season. The Liverpool forward has returned 26 goals and 18 assists from just 34 appearances, and is the early favourite to win this season’s Ballon d’Or as a result.

Leading the way for the Premier League’s Golden Boot and Playmaker awards, the 32-year-old is already well-placed to rack up the individual accolades at the end of the campaign.

With the Reds six points clear at the top of the table, should Salah get his hands on a second Premier League title come May and he will surely be a runaway winner.

READ MORE: 'I am convinced' - Carlo Ancelotti does not think Liverpool will win Champions League this season

READ MORE: Arne Slot has no time for Premier League fixture theory with Arsenal to find out Liverpool truth

However, despite his incredible form, his dominance at Liverpool is over - for this month at least - after he actually missed out on one individual prize.

While Salah is the Reds’ leading goalscorer, Cody Gakpo is starting to push him close. The Dutchman now has 16 goals this season - equalling his Liverpool best - and five assists from 35 appearances.

The Dutchman has seemingly edged ahead of Luis Diaz in the pecking order at left wing as a result of such form. And after producing four goals and an assist during his seven appearances in January, his exploits have been recognised by Liverpool supporters.

It was announced on Tuesday that Gakpo had won the Standard Chartered Men's Player of the Month award for the first time in his Liverpool career, finishing ahead of both Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai.

In doing so, he became only the second Reds player other than the Egyptian to win the award this season. Such is Salah’s consistency, he was voted Player of the Month in August, October, November and December before Gakpo ended his dominance - with Ryan Gravenberch the only other winner during the current campaign.

This has not gone unnoticed in the Liverpool camp, with Gakpo cheekily referencing such a fact when greeted by Salah and the rest of his team-mates when holding the award.

“Player of the month! Wow!” Salah laughed at the AXA Training Centre, in a video posted by the club on social media, when spotting the Dutchman, leading Virgil van Dijk, Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai in a round of applause.

First embracing Van Dijk, Gakpo then said to Salah: “I stole your trophy, Mo!”

Meanwhile, he told the club website: "It's always amazing to get voted by the fans. It's a recognition by the fans for the hard work you put in for the team and I think it's always nice to get that.

“I think normally it's Mo [Salah], which makes sense! But I am very happy that I can win this one.

“It was a good month for us, for everybody I think. We had some tough games but at the end we performed very well in those difficult games and, yeah, I'm very happy.

"It doesn't matter if it's people coming in or starting, we do it all together and I think we showed that in this month again."

It has long been teased that Salah must have broken the record for records broken during his Liverpool career, with it becoming more newsworthy when he doesn’t actually win an accolade - as demonstrated by Gakpo’s January win.

Admittedly, the club’s own player of the month award is pretty minor compared to the trophies the Reds will be chasing in May. But if they are to get their hands on the Premier League and/or Champions League, they will need both Salah and Gakpo to continue in such form.

It is a sign of the Dutchman’s growing importance to Liverpool that he was one of 11 players left at home altogether for the Reds’ FA Cup exit away at Plymouth Argyle, with the forward set to be restored to the starting XI against Everton on Sunday.

Out of contract at the end of the season, Salah’s future at Anfield remains uncertain. Yet his Player of the Month dominance should act as another reason why Liverpool would be wise to retain the Egyptian's services.

But regardless of where the 32-year-old is plying his trade next season, Gakpo’s own rise can at least act as a sign of things to come and a minimum starting point for Reds bosses when it comes to, one day, replacing their Egyptian King.