Former Watford striker Troy Deeney has doubled down on his bizarre insistence that Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah is not world-class, despite the Reds ace having scored more Premier League goals than all but five players since the competition began.
Having struggled in the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle United, Deeney has taken the chance to put Salah down again even though the Egyptian has scored 32 goals this season and provided 22 assists. He is among the leading contenders for the Ballon d'Or and has entered the conversation for being the best Liverpool player of all time.
"When you look at the stats, he hasn’t scored or had an assist," Deeney said on talkSPORT, referring to the PSG and Newcastle fixtures. "When you look at it like that it’s quite difficult to argue against. You would say he’s not turned up in those games.
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"This weekend, I just didn’t see a moment in that game where he looked like scoring. He played against them really well in Newcastle [in the Premier League].
"When Liverpool are at their best, it goes all through Salah. It shows how much they will miss Trent (Alexander-Arnold). They do have (Jarell) Quansah and (Conor) Bradley, but they are not the same quality.
"When coaches are looking at it the day before, they will be saying if we double up on Salah, we give Trent that dead ball space, and he will kill us. They become predictable. I’m a big fan of Salah. I just don’t think he’s world-class.
"His numbers and stats are excellent. But what I think of world-class is that feeling you get when you watch someone, like Ronaldinho. Eden Hazard and Luis Suarez when they had those seasons in the Premier League too."
Salah is away with Egypt for the international break this week. When he returns, he will look to cement his spot as the Premier League's top scorer for this season; four more goals will see him move into fourth on the top flight's all-time top scorer list.
Liverpool.com says: It sounds very much like Deeney has completely misunderstood the meaning of the word "world-class." Salah has hit 20-plus goals in every season at Anfield and his numbers this season are Lionel Messi-like.
Hazard had one season where he was consistently performing and even then, he got nowhere near the volume of goals and assists that Salah has ever since 2017. The Egyptian has been the best player in the world this season and two games in a week where he has been quiet should not rewrite the rest of the campaign.
