Surely, in this remarkable Liverpool season, one player completely immune to any criticism is the indomitable Mohamed Salah. Except apparently not — with none other than a fellow Reds icon taking aim at the Egyptian.
The numbers speak for themselves when it comes to Salah. He leads the race for the Golden Boot ahead of Erling Haaland, but that’s not the only golden thing in his sights, with the Ballon d’Or also a realistic aim.
After all, Salah also happens to lead the way for assists in the Premier League, and by a significant margin. He has already hit the record for the most overall goal contributions in a season, and there’s still a realistic prospect that he could break the individual goal and assist records, which would be a frankly absurd achievement.
The Ballon d’Or often hinges on team achievements, but Liverpool is looking pretty healthy on that front too. Certainly, the Premier League title looks all but wrapped up, with Arsenal now 15 points behind.
Salah helped to build that gap last weekend, netting a brace against Southampton to turn the game around. Admittedly, both strikes were from the penalty spot, but he continues to hold his nerve and make the difference in the big moments.
Even so, John Aldridge believes Salah’s standards have dropped. Speaking on the Blood Red Podcast, the Liverpool legend made the outlandish claim that the 32-year-old has even been “poor”.
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“Do you know we talk about Salah? Because we’re talking having a pint after the game, as I do normally, to celebrate,” Aldridge explained.
“I was very critical of Mo the last two games. Now, if he wants to be a Ballon d’Or winner, which I’d love him to get, he can’t play like he did last Wednesday [the first leg against PSG].
“You know, he was just nothing, nothing more, nothing. He didn’t win one challenge, he was really poor.”
It was an admittedly ineffectual game for Salah, whose replacement Harvey Elliott came on and scored within a minute. But such matches have been few and far between, to put it mildly.
And while it may not be Ballon d’Or material, Salah has been contributing as much as ever before without the ball. Arne Slot has him tracking back when required, and together he and Trent Alexander-Arnold just about managed to hold down the right flank against PSG.
So to focus in on Salah in just the ninth game all season in all competitons where he did not score or assist is a strange decision by Aldridge. Aside from maybe Lionel Messi’s 91-goal calendar year, even Ballon d’Or winners are bound to have the occasional tough match.
One thing’s for sure: Liverpool owes a significant share of the credit for this remarkable campaign to Salah. He could do nothing for the remainder of the year, and he would still be a shoo-in for the Player of the Season — and while the Egyptian King would be the first to agree that he can always strive to be better, Aldridge has picked an odd battle here.
