Premier League best player decided as Salah claim made despite City competition
As far as Thomas Frank was concerned, Brentford were beaten by the best on Sunday.
The Bees boss had seen his side lose 3-0 at Anfield to a Liverpool outfit looking determined to chase down Manchester City this season, and it was the man who scored two goals who Frank believes was largely responsible.
“Mo Salah, [Jurgen] Klopp praises him a lot, but I actually don’t know if he gets enough praise,” said Frank. “Off the top of my head, there is a chance he’s the best player in the Premier League, potentially. In terms of goals and assists. What a level!
“He must be one of the best offensive players in the world. Like, not top 10, but top three. So when you have a player of that quality [against you], you just know there is a problem.”
So we thought we'd give the Mirror Football team a problem too. Is Salah the best in the league? And if he isn't, who is?
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Mike Walters
Two hundred goals in six years - that's a lot. As the great Brian Clough might have said, if Mo Salah isn't the best player in the world, he's in the top one. That's why Saudi power-brokers are prepared to pay £200,000,000,000,000 (or however many noughts are applicable) to make the Egyptian king their marquee signing.
Without blowing smoke where the sun doesn't shine, some of us tipped to win the title and for Salah to be the 2023-24 Footballer of the Year. Neither is a done deal yet - not by a long chalk - but a point off the summit and 12 goals to date in all competitions this season suggests both punts are not a million miles off course.
Whatever the future may hold for Salah, when history judges his contribution to Liverpool, he will not only be an Anfield legend - he will be a Premier League great.
Salah scored a brace against Brentford on Sunday (AP)Andy Dunn
For some considerable time, Salah has been the best player in the Premier League and that remains the case. Only Kevin de Bruyne has rivalled the Egyptian for consistent brilliance.
In fact, his variety of goals, his ingenuity and his mesmerisingly quick feet make Salah one of the finest footballers never to win the Ballon D’Or. He is an extraordinary operator on so many levels, no least a physical one.
The statistics for goals and assists are remarkable but you can only clock up those numbers if you are fit and firing week in, week out. Since joining Liverpool in the summer of 2017, there have only been ten Premier League games in which Salah has not appeared. He was on the bench for three of those games and away on international duty for two. He missed another through Covid.
Quite simply, Salah is one of the most creative, destructive and ROBUST players the Premier League has ever seen.
John Cross
There are so many players to choose from right now. You could pick Erling Haaland, Rodri, Mo Salah or even Bukayo Saka. The best two English players, Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham, are playing abroad.
But I’m going to go for Bernardo Silva. Week in and week out, he just makes it happen. He’s utterly fearless on the ball. His legs are so flexible that you never know which way he’s going to turn. He’s a little footballing genius who can dribble, create and produce amazing pieces of control.
Silva has got better with time. He makes the best team better. And I bet if you asked Pep Guardiola and he was truly honest then he’d pick brilliant Bernardo as his most important player.
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I will always, always try and go for a player who features in a successful, trophy-winning team as my best player. Voting for Scott Parker as Football Writers’ Footballer of the Year taught me that! It’s why I unashamedly voted for Sam Kerr last season when I kept being told I was wrong. Just look at what she ended up achieving! Go for the winner. It's the golden rule. And in a similar vein, Bernardo Silva is playing for the best team and producing every week. He’s the man.
Bernardo Silva is one of Manchester City's most important players (Getty Images)Mark Jones
The Ballon d'Or should never really be taken as much of a barometer for anything given how overblown it all is, but while Erling Haaland might have come second to Lionel Messi this year there is only one Premier League player who has come close to winning it since Cristiano Ronaldo in 2008. And it's not Mo Salah, it's his captain.
Haaland finished some 105 points off the Argentinean maestro for 2023, but four years earlier Virgil van Dijk was just seven points behind Messi in the voting and within a whisker of claiming a rare personal accolade for a defender.
Van Dijk had just won the Champions League and was on the road to Premier League glory then, and while we know just what stopped him in his tracks, he is very much back in the groove now and has been superb this season, not putting a foot wrong since that red card at Newcastle in the third week.
The Premier League's best attacker? Salah. Best goalscorer? Haaland. Most important player? Rodri. But the most commanding, composed figure? That's the Liverpool captain, and he's back to his best.
Virgil van Dijk has returned to his best form for Liverpool (Paul Currie/Colorsport/REX/Shutterstock)Tom Victor
One of the signs of a great footballer is being able to remain on top of your game even when others are pulling out all the stops to stop you in your tracks. By this token, there’s absolutely a very strong case for Mohamed Salah.
Few others have the ability to create space for themselves while backed into a corner or seemingly forced onto a weaker foot. Fewer still can consistently do this even when allegedly off form.
There are cases for other players, of course. Erling Haaland ’s goal record speaks for itself, to the point that his minimal contribution when not scoring barely matters, while you only need to look at City’s porousness against Chelsea to recognise John Stones’ quality.
Salah, though, is a player who will leave opponents terrified when picking the ball up more or less anywhere on the pitch. If he dipped at times last season, he appears to be over that slump now (if you can call it that) and has staked his claim all over again.
Dan Marsh
When it comes to the crème de la crème of the Premier League, one player stands above all others: Mohamed Salah.
Liverpool's talisman may have been outgunned by Erling Haaland last year, but he's absolutely unrivalled when it comes to consistency at this level. He has led the way both in terms of quality and output since returning to England in 2017 and it feels like barely a week goes by without him adding to his Anfield legacy. The fact he is still setting club records, as he did this weekend, is nothing short of astounding.
There are others who have excelled on a regular basis in recent years but very few can probably lay a claim to being world class. Maybe Erling Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne sit alongside Salah in that category as things stand. But make no mistake, Salah is very much in a league of his own right now.
Salah has now scored 200 goals in English football (AFP via Getty Images)Nathan Ridley
Mohamed Salah is a phenomenon, no question about it. Over the past six years he’s gone beyond being a supreme goalscorer and made himself the best winger in world football, perfectly suited to the modern game and someone who’d walk into any team on the planet. But I don’t think he’s the best in the league. That title belongs to Kevin De Bruyne, who simply doesn’t get enough acclaim.
As was often used in the Cristiano Ronaldo versus Lionel Messi debate, Salah - like Ronaldo - does things that other players can do albeit exceptionally well and on a more consistent basis than his contemporaries. De Bruyne, though, produces magic that no one else can match and that’s what makes him so special.
Of course, Salah’s outstanding fitness record over De Bruyne’s patchy one should come into it and the Egyptian king of Anfield deserves credit for that. But when based on pure performance, the brilliant Belgian gets my vote.
Kevin De Bruyne is a superb player to watch when fit (PA)Kieran King
Erling Haaland is the best player in the Premier League. It's as simple as that. The Norwegian hasn't been at his best this season, but he is still the division's top scorer on 13 goals in 12 matches.
That is three more than second-placed Mohamed Salah who is having a fine season himself but cannot get near Haaland in terms of numbers and the output the City forward is producing. Haaland also struck a sensational 52 goals in 53 appearances in all competitions last term and finished second in the Ballon d'Or last month, only behind Lionel Messi.
It isn't just his goalscoring that is impressive about Haaland, however. The 23-year-old has three top flight assists to his name this season and can pretty much do everything. He is sublime at holding the ball up and bringing others into play, while Haaland's pace is frightening - simply a nightmare for opponents to defend against.
Rodri, Salah, Kevin De Bruyne and Bruno Fernandes are close behind, but, for me, Haaland ranks as No.1.
Haaland is one of the best goalscorers the Premier League has ever seen (Getty Images)Alan Smith
If you were building a team from scratch and could pick one current Premier League player, it would no longer be Salah because of age. But in terms of consistent impact since arriving at Liverpool in the summer of 2017 he is unrivalled.
The statistics are remarkable and he is a player who recognises the importance of availability being the most important ability. Yet his greatest achievement may be how he epitomised a shift in psychology at Anfield.
When Jurgen Klopp would speak about his “mentality monsters”, Salah always looked like the poster boy. He may not be the type of leader to shout and scream (although he has been known to sulk when being substituted) but his influence on the players around him may remain underappreciated.
Rodri is a key player for Manchester City (Nigel Keene/ProSports/REX/Shutterstock)Fraser Watson
Since joining Liverpool in 2017, Mo Salah’s numbers have been off the scale, his form consistently electric, and his trophy cabinet stocked with every major club honour there is to win in English football.
And yet, bizarrely, he continues to go criminally underrated, with his latest Ballon d’Or placing of 11th another example of the widespread failure to recognise him as one of the true elite.
Yes, he again trails in the goalscoring stakes to Erling Haaland this season, a notion that may well be different if Salah were enjoying the glut of chances provided for the Norwegian right now. And yes, a fully fit Kevin de Bruyne undoubtedly rivals the Egyptian when the topic of the Premier League’s best player is discussed.
But while Salah belongs in the conversation, and for the sake of the league I hope it remains that way despite the interest from Saudi Arabia, my nod for the top-flight’s best goes elsewhere. But only just.
Rodri’s recent suspension brutally exposed how much Manchester City need him. A defensive midfielder who is potent going forward, he’s arguably surpassed the Premier League impact of the likes of Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira, irrespective of what nostalgic fans think.
The Premier League’s best attacker right now? Salah. Best player? Rodri by a whisker.
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