Is Mohamed Salah “world-class”?

Former Watford cult striker Troy Deeney decided to spare the footballing world from making do with only Harry Kane’s “England above all else” sentiments, with somehow, a more incendiary discourse. While answering a question on Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah’s “world-class” credentials, he first delineated that his “world-class” might be different from someone else’s “world-class”, like a variation of “my red is different than your red”. Nonetheless, Deeney’s wish that his children played more like Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr., instead of Salah, was simply too inviting for aggregator accounts to not post the quote and bookend it with a question to their audiences.

We have been here before. First it was the mercurial Eden Hazard, sometimes Neymar Jr., and now Vinicius Jr. The years wind down and Salah keeps diverging from the explosive maverick that shook the Premier League to its core in 2017. That season, and the one after that, Salah successfully completed 2.45 and 2.22 take-ons per 90 minutes, figures he hasn’t come close to replicating ever since. 

There are many ways to frame the responses, from both Deeney and the amorphous “footballing public”. Nostalgia is an inescapable phenomenon in nearly every sphere of modern life, and football is no exception. A collective withdrawal for noughties English football was labelled as a love-letter to “Barclaysmen”, with recent highlight-worthy goals being compared to something out of a “Best of Serie A 2006” compilation. Ronaldinho, Rooney, Kaka, Del Piero, Sneijder, Henry and the rest; you dare compare these with soulless, robotic players like Haaland and Salah? 

At least there’s Vinicius Jr, a rogue, individual spirit with mischief in his playbook, and a bitter taste of losing out on this year’s Ballon d’Or to Manchester City’s Rodri. One can easily trace a line from Deeney’s comments till Karim Benzema, when the ex-Real Madrid forward gave his two cents on the issue, ultimately judging that Rodri was undeserving due to a lack in his “phwoah” factor—a piece of trickery or individual brilliance immediately perceivable to the eyes.

The Egyptian King of Merseyside is hardly the worst offender. Former Arsenal defender Hector Bellerin has bemoaned the death of art in football at the hands of the “data revolution”, while many want to send Pep Guardiola and positional play to the gallows for making third-tier English sides to play like Barcelona.

Perhaps some haven’t still come to grips with modern tactical trends. Shortly after Liverpool broke a three decade-long league title drought, Guardian’s Barney Ronay published a long piece about a dominating, historic season for the Reds. One quote stood out the most, in which Ronay described Jürgen Klopp’s side as one where the “full-backs are attackers, midfielders are defenders, wingers score goals, forwards chase and press”. 

Salah was never a pure right-winger. Even at Roma, where his body of work was prompting tweets from Juventus’ official Twitter account, warning their supporters of the Egyptian forward ahead of a league clash against the Giallorossi. There, he was the “small man” to Edin Dzeko, the “big man” in the frontline. Indeed, as Ronay highlighted, Salah along with Mane were the chief goal-scoring threats, focussed on drifting towards their respective half-spaces, hunting for goals. Since his Liverpool debut to this moment, no other player in the Premier League has registered more cumulative touches in the opposition box than Salah, except the malaise-ridden 2022/23 season. 

Funnier still is Roberto Firmino, the former no. 9 and his role as a “false nine” in that “Liverpool 1.0” side. The Brazilian always caught eyes with his clarity of thought when dropping a couple of yards behind the penalty area, effortlessly employing cute flicks and nutmegs to allow his wingers to pounce at goal. If Firmino and Salah had swapped their shirt numbers, allowing the tricky Brazilian to be profiled as a winger or an attacking midfielder, while Salah was referred to as a center-forward, would Deeney had responded differently?