Chris Sutton has suggested that Liverpool star Mo Salah has been left in the shadow of a positional peer who he claims is now among the best in the world in his role.
The ex-Blackburn Rovers striker has hailed Bukayo Saka as one of the foremost right wingers on the planet, citing several others within the Premier League who the 50-year-old feels have been usurped by the Arsenal gem.
In his column for Mail+, the former Premier League winner wrote: “Saka is winning the battle on the right. Salah has not been the same footballing force for Liverpool this season.
“Mahrez is incredibly talented for Man City but I would rank Saka ahead of him. And I won’t be taking any suggestions of Antony seriously — the United man probably has Saka posters hanging on his bedroom wall.”
What’s not beyond question is that Saka is indeed enjoying a magnificent season, with 12 goals and 10 assists in the Premier League alone as one of the standout figures of Arsenal’s title charge (FBref).
The 21-year-old further underlined his world-class talents with a sumptuous goal in England’s 2-0 win over Ukraine yesterday, finishing to the net in sublime fashion as Jordan Henderson claimed the assist.
However, it’s not as if Salah’s form has fallen off a cliff in 2022/23 – far from it. He’s still netted 22 times in all competitions, with 11 of those coming in the top flight, and he only needs one more goal to match his lowest tally for a full campaign in six years at Liverpool (Transfermarkt).
Granted, the Egyptian mightn’t be quite at the stratospheric levels which saw him plunder 44 goals in his first season at Anfield, or 33 last term, but he’s still been a consistently reliable attacking presence for the Reds.
As per FBref, he actually trumps Saka for some metrics, boasting a higher shots on target rate (41.8% to 31.3%), a greater passing accuracy (75.6% to 74.4%) and more shots on target per 90 minutes (1.28 to 0.79).
Salah remains an outstanding footballer and he’s consistently produced the goods over a number of years. He’s a perfect blueprint for the Arsenal maestro to try and emulate as the youngster seeks to build upon his excellent campaign for club and country as his career progresses.
Once again Sutton comes up with a load of shite,. Salah has done it every season since he came. One swallow doesn’t make a summer.probably so thick won’t have heard that saying will somebody explain it to him.
His stupid comments are as remarkable as his useless results forecast every week, which the BBC wastes licence payers on and nobody cares about!
His stupid comments are as remarkable as his useless results forecast every week, which the BBC wastes licence payers on and nobody cares about!
Dead right the guys an absolute prick, about as good as he was at football which was fking useless.