Mohamed Salah has now been a Liverpool player for two years and former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has backed the Egyptian to follow in the footsteps of Lionel Messi.
Salah has earned his spot among the Premier League greats with two unbelievable seasons at Anfield, but he could yet find his name synonymous with the likes of Messi.
Wenger believes that Salah has the right players around him to help him establish himself as one of the best in the game. “He’s 20 goals away if you want to be as concrete as possible, but he has similarities with Messi. He must find the consistency of Messi,” he told beIN Sports.
“I find him as good a finisher but Messi has the full thing with the final ball as well. Salah is a bit obsessed now with finishing himself.
“It’s a dimension that he’ll get, certainly, when he grows a bit older to find the moment when you have to keep the ball and when you have to finish.”
Wenger makes a fair point there, by referring to the Egyptian’s age. Salah has only been playing at the level he finds himself at for a few years now, and he’s still just 27-years-old.
This is very different to 32-year-old Messi who has been playing at an elite level since his early 20s – Mo is rightfully mentioned in the same breath as the Argentine.
The former Arsenal manager also had nice things to say about Brazilian forward Bobby Firmino, as the Frenchman sees him integral to Jurgen Klopp’s system.
“I like him very much, he has huge potential – Mane as well. You forget a little bit that the guy who sacrifices himself a little bit is Firmino,” he continued.
“It’s like what Luis Suarez did for Messi and Neymar – the guy who works for the team and works for everybody and gets them to shine and this piece of the jigsaw is always very difficult to find – a striker who is generous.“