Daily Times

While Mohamed Salah’s sheer generosity and kindness must be acknowledged, I believe he is very overrated. “Without a shadow of a doubt, he’s the best player on the planet right now,” Steven Gerrard commented. I will explain why Gerrard and many others are incorrect with their assessment of Salah. First and foremost, Salah was very wasteful last season, giving up 23 big chances, the most in the Premier League. Furthermore, of his 44 prolific goals last season, 17 were deemed tap-in’s, which are chances players are expected to score. These statistics show that Liverpool was extremely creative last season, and presented Salah with many simple opportunities to score, some of which he took, many which he didn’t. Salah is often applauded for his creativity, however, he only created 14 big chances last season, 0.60% of what he wasted. Even Shaqiri, who played for an eventually relegated team, created 14 chances. So, while Salah is often admired for his creativity, it’s a myth. Also, while Salah is renowned dribbler, he only managed to complete 2.2 dribbles per 90 minutes, while unsuccessfully attempting 1.3 dribbles every match last season in the premier league. This was bettered by many players including Andros Townsend, who, last season, achieved 2.3 successful dribbles per 90 minutes, and only 1.1 unsuccessful dribbles every game. Additionally, as a midfielder, Salah also has a duty to defend. Last season, Salah made the same amount of fouls per game than he did tackles and interceptions combined. He made 0.4 fouls, 0.1 interceptions, 0.3 tackles. By comparison, Anthony Martial, who is often criticized for not tracking back and defending, averaged 0.5 tackles and 0.1 interceptions per game in 2017/18. Lastly, Salah is extremely one-footed, which inevitably will reduce the amount of goals he can score, and chances he can create. Last term, he only managed to score 5 right-footed goals, which translates to 15% of his goal total last season in the Premier League. Overall, it seems clear that Salah is massively overrated. While there’s no denying his class, it’s obvious some areas of his game are lacking, and need to improve before he’s compared to the best players in the Premier League – never mind the world.

Published in Daily Times, November 1^st 2018.