20 Jun 2024 22:59:31
I would choose Rafael Leao over anyone for a left sided player. Unfortunately, we need a right sided which are few and far between, not very impressed by any right wingers atm.
20 Jun 2024 23:50:38
We've got Salah. Our top scorer for every season he's been at the club.
Did you notice me not bashing one of our players? ?.
21 Jun 2024 09:38:29
Rigsby, well said mate ?
Salah is currently our 5th top scorer of all time with 211 goals. He's just 17 behind Billy Liddell in 4th place and only 30 behind Gordon Hodgson in 3rd place. So if we keep Mo next year there is a very realistic chance he could finish the season our 3rd top scorer of all time behind only Ian Rush and Roger Hunt.
To put into context just how good Salah is, he and Kevin Keegan have both played around 320-350 games for Liverpool. Keegan scored a very respectable 100 goals and was pretty much seen as the best Liverpool player at the time to such an extent people worried about how hard it would be to replace him when he left. In more or less the same amount of pitch time (28,000 minutes), Salah has scored 111 more goals. Keegan won the Balon D'or in back to back years after he left Liverpool so you're talking about one of the best players ever, and Salah makes his goal scoring record for us look absolutely terrible. We'll probably never see this again from a winger at our club. It's happened once in 132 years.
21 Jun 2024 10:13:13
@MK.
Everyone loved Salah but it’s no secret he has lost a yard of pace and that makes it difficult to play as a winger for the next season. So can you tell us all where would you like him to play?
21 Jun 2024 10:17:37
I agree here gents. Salah isn't the same player today that he was a few years ago but the beauty is there is no inflation in football when it comes to goals.
His 20 plus goals next season are the exact same worth to the 20 plus goals he scored in his prime.
Goals win games.
21 Jun 2024 10:48:13
Rafa Leal has very little end product, IMO.
21 Jun 2024 10:43:49
His pace was and is only one facet to his game, still stack him up against any player with ball at feet. Can’t understand some comments on this site.
21 Jun 2024 11:27:51
I don't know how Slot wants to play yet so that's impossible to answer, Jaguar. If it's similar to Klopp then he should stay RW but if it's more like a Guardiola system (as many reports suggest) then Salah would probably be better in the middle either as an AM or CF.
21 Jun 2024 12:42:45
I was calling for us to sell Mo before we sold Mane. But in the here and now, I'm not prepared to give up on Mo and just assume that his legs are gone like some seem to think.
He's only 31, had an injury where his rehab was hampered by a tourney and returning for our run-in.
I think it's fair to recognize that he is a seasoned professional and that he will be working hard on his body to get it ready for the rigours of another long season. I think he has earned that credit before he is discounted and cast aside.
21 Jun 2024 12:55:54
Interesting, though as we potentially lose a lot of money not moving him on.
I'd listen to offers, but i'm unsure you'll get someone of his calibre easily. Especially if he's on his peak.
Another point is salah would also have CAF and potentially world cup. so he could struggle next year.
21 Jun 2024 13:12:37
Not moving him on? What if he doesn't want to go? What if the club wants him to stay? The club knew how old he was when they gave him a contract.
21 Jun 2024 13:46:08
Plus the Olympics, DeanW.
21 Jun 2024 13:51:47
In no universe is leao anywhere near the same caliber as salah in terms of productivity, even if they play opposite flanks and have slightly different roles in their respective teams, salah comes up with the numbers even when he isn’t playing well, leao has considerably less impressive numbers for a player of his reputation, with his centrality to milan’s attack and price tag, he still gets bullied physically sometimes (which is something you can never say about salah), doesn’t defend and his awareness of his team mate’s movements and general game intelligence holistically speaking is also much much lower than mo’s, which is the trait that I think will allow mo to make an easy transition to being more of a 10.
Leao is fast, explosive, a mesmerising dribbler when he’s on form and unpredictable when on the ball, he can win you a game with some trickery and is more of an entertaining maverick than a consistently productive winger who works cohesively with the team on and off the ball, participating in the build up and that you want performing in a functioning system.
21 Jun 2024 14:32:37
A proper rest this summer could do salah the world of good.
21 Jun 2024 15:03:54
I don't see an able replacement out there for Salah, for this coming year or the year after that. Who said we need goals and threat from only the right side? If there are better players than what we have for the left, why not consider that also?
I had cited Musiala and Kvaratskhelia for the left, before. I'm adding Nico Williams to the list. What a game he played against Italy.
And if Bakayoko is the best we can find for the right, at the moment (whether Salah stays for a year and leaves afterwards), then let's go with that.
21 Jun 2024 15:32:19
I agree ArAy - previously the bulk of our goals came from the likes of Fowler, Owen, Torres, Suarez, Sturridge - more central than wide though Sturridge and Suarez would have rotated a lot.
Salah came and scored a boatload from the wing, Mane too at that time scored a lot from the wing - even moved wings to accommodate Salah and still scored loads.
My point similar to yours ArAy, we may lose goals from the right if Salah leaves or perhaps he just doesn't score as much with the loss of a bit of pace (still think he'll score loads if he stays though) but whose to say we don't sign somebody new and get loads of goals from the left or central positions again?
Interesting times and none of us will know what the team will look like under Slot yet.
21 Jun 2024 15:49:29
Jaguar and Nicolbecker seem to share a lot of opinions. ?.
21 Jun 2024 16:45:31
Gmil, Salah won’t get a proper rest though if he’s going to the Olympics. He’ll be spent before the season starts. At 32 he’s not going to suddenly have more energy, or find that extra yard of pace or become a player like De Bruyne. Well at least not unless he makes friends with Pep’s doctor mate with the roids. Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, he needs to be phased out in the same way that many others have. Keeping a player in because of sentiment is detrimental to the team and the player. He certainly isn’t worth another long term contract. That isn’t bashing him, that’s critical appraisal of the situation based on last season.
21 Jun 2024 16:46:28
Head scout and assistant scout, semi….
21 Jun 2024 19:18:33
Personally I think Salah will struggle. It's not just pace that he has lost, his instinct in front of goal was missing for the entire second half of season and he gets pushed off the ball and tackled very easily now.
The smart thing to do with him is give him less running and less pressing to do and move him central. Messi did same thing, as did Ronaldo (though Ronny sits higher up) . He doesn't have the pace or stamina anymore to do the high pressing work out of possession and it's much better if he's just the guy who pokes the ball in the net from 6-12 yards instead since his timing and positioning still seems pretty good.
Just my two cents.
21 Jun 2024 20:08:00
Yet he still scores more goals for us than anyone else.
21 Jun 2024 20:29:07
Mane had lost a yard of pace in his last season and ended up scoring 20 goals (I think) . I think Salah could easily do the same if we played him centrally.
21 Jun 2024 20:37:33
Yes Nevada, Salah’s brilliance was due to his pace, strength on the ball and eye for goal.
He was SO strong, once he had the ball you had to tackle him to get it back.