When Mohamed Salah is on song, there are very few teams who can handle him. Brentford found that out the hard way on Sunday.
Liverpool’s talisman hit double figures in the Premier League this season with his double during the weekend’s 3-0 win, and it could so easily have been a hat-trick had he managed to keep a first-half volley down. Still, this was Salah at his clinical best.
The Egyptian now has 14 goal involvements (10 goals, four assists) in the league this season, putting him only behind Erling Haaland (13 goals, three assists). Brentford boss Thomas Frank though was in no doubt who comes out on top after seeing another Salah masterclass.
“Mo Salah gets praised a lot but I don’t know if he gets enough praise,” Frank said (via the ECHO). “I think right now off the top of my head, he is the best player in the Premier League, potentially.
“In terms of goals and assists, what a level. He must be one of the top offensive players in the world. Not like top 10 but top three.
“What he has done and when you have a player of that quality you just know that it is a problem. Also the second goal he cannot avoid to score because we are not doing enough defensively but the first one is a clear signature Liverpool attack. We lost it, counter-attack, bang, into Salah and it was a goal.
“But it is not always a goal for everyone in that situation, that is just the quality of the player and Liverpool’s quality.”
It’s quite the claim from the Brentford boss. Salah has been one of the Premier League’s best players over the last few years, and two PFA Player of the Year awards bear that out. It’s worth pointing out that no player in the history of English football has won the award more than twice since its inception in 1973.
Clearly, Haaland can lay claim to being the Premier League’s best player right now. But with Kevin De Bruyne currently out of action, there aren’t many more players that come close to the Norwegian or Salah, so perhaps Frank has a point.
And if you can be considered the best player in the Premier League, then chances are you’re one of the best players in the world as well. Top three, as Frank suggests, might be considered a little over the top by some, but Salah is probably better than the 11th-place finish he achieved in this year’s Ballon d’Or.
With that in mind, why on earth would he choose to go to move to Saudi Arabia? And why would Liverpool ever consider selling him?
At 31 years old, Salah can rightfully claim to be one of the world’s best players, and the Saudi Pro League is not the place to be when you have that claim to fame. Kylian Mbappé proved that during the summer when he refused to entertain the idea of a world record move to Al-Hilal (via Sky News).
Salah could well end up commanding similar figures to the $316m (£257/€295) offered to PSG as interest is expected to swell again in January. For Liverpool though, there is only one answer — the Reds need to hold on to the “best player in the Premier League”.