Mohamed Salah faces brutal criticism. It’s not a sentence I should have ever had to write this season, and yet here we are.
I’ve already had to deal with Troy Deeney claiming that Salah is somehow “not world-class“, an assessment he seems to be basing on little more than “trust me, bro”. And now, for the second time in a matter of days, a former player has decided to take a swipe at the Premier League’s top scorer.
And top assister. And top big chance creator, and top just about anything else you can think of — it is genuinely unfathomable that anyone should be using this international break to take shots at him.
The criticism seems to be based on the last three games, where Salah has been some way short of his glittering best in crucial meetings with PSG and Newcastle. But while Arne Slot would have loved to see more from his talisman, those games constitute three of just 11 all season where the Egyptian has featured — in any capacity, in all competitions — and not scored or assisted.
Regardless, Bacary Sagna has become the latest to gleefully seize on the first vaguely plausible chance to put Salah down. The former Man City and Arsenal man has shared his brutal verdict on the Liverpool star.
“Mo Salah is an amazing player, but people will question his ability to show up when it matters,” Sagna told Paddy Power. “He’s still a great player, but he can’t do everything on his own.
“I rate him as good as any other top striker and winger, but if you’re not competitive when it matters, like Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr or Cristiano Ronaldo can do, people will question whether he can perform against the big clubs or best players. It’s not surprising to see people questioning his ability to do it, because the data isn’t kind to him.”
The data? Seriously?
(Image: Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
At least Deeney tried to justify himself by basing his verdict on an impossible-to-pin-down “feeling”. If Sagna wants to talk about the data, then Salah can show him a whole host of records he has broken or is on the way to breaking.
Salah has 44 league goal contributions this season. Of the players Sagna mentioned, Vinicius Jr has 17, Mbappe has 23, and Ronaldo (in the Saudi Pro League) has 22.
But maybe Sagna is talking about the “big game” data specifically. Okay, let’s have a look at that.
Salah’s three favorite opponents in terms of career goals scored are Manchester United, Tottenham and Manchester City. Arsenal also features in the top five — that’s four of the so-called “big six”.
By comparison, Ronaldo’s three favorite opponents are Sevilla, Atletico and Getafe. Yet apparently it is Salah who is not the big-game player.
And in any case, Salah should not have to come out on top of a comparison with Ronaldo in order to be considered elite. The Portugal star is widely considered to be the second-best player of a generation.
Salah should be getting celebrated right now, with this international break a chance to take stock of the enormity of what he has achieved up to this point in the season. And yet in another sign of an increasingly toxic environment, a couple of bad games have attracted the vultures — although when I see them, I will do my best to shoo them away.
