Liverpool is on the brink of the Premier League title, and Mohamed Salah has 27 league goals and 17 assists. It's frankly unfathomable that anyone could be criticizing him — and yet Troy Deeney has risen to the occasion.
These past few games are genuinely the first opportunity that Salah has given his critics all season. Until just over a week ago, the talk was of the Ballon d'Or, but a momentary slip in his immaculate standards has seen all sorts of rent-a-gob chancers crawl out of the woodwork.
You can count on your fingers all the games this season in which Salah has started and not registered a goal contribution, and that's across all competitions. He has at times almost single-handedly dragged Arne Slot's side to the summit of the Premier League, with his best numbers since arriving at Anfield nearly eight years ago.
READ MORE: Julian Alvarez already made his feelings on Virgil van Dijk clear amid Liverpool transfer interest
READ MORE: 'I've just seen exactly why Liverpool should be excited for what Arne Slot is about to do next'
Let's assess what Deeney has said. "When you look at the stats, he hasn’t scored or had an assist," he told talkSPORT, following the games against PSG and Newcastle.
"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.
"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]."
At this point, we're still just about within the realms of reasonable, albeit extremely harsh. Salah will be more disappointed than anyone that he was unable to influence proceedings against PSG or Newcastle — although singling him out when it is one of his first failures to make a difference all season is certainly an interesting choice.
And unfortunately, what Deeney said next crossed the threshold into utter nonsense. He's either clueless, or willing to stop at nothing in pursuit of talkSPORT ratings.
"I’m a big fan of Salah," Deeney claimed. "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."
I thought we had finally put these Hazard debates to bed. Anyone with half a footballing brain knows that Salah is operating in a different stratosphere to his one-time Stamford Bridge teammate.
But even rating Hazard higher is more forgivable than claiming that Salah is not world-class. We're dealing with someone who has a strong case to be the best player in the world right now: if he isn't world-class, nobody is.
It simply has to be rage-bait — and if it is, then fair play to Deeney, because it has quite evidently worked. I am livid to see him taking the first chance he gets to tear Salah down.
He has conveniently made it hard to comprehensively prove him wrong with the caveat that "numbers and stats" don't matter. So if you're reading, Troy, you can skip over this next bit, but it still needs to be spelled out.
With nine games to go, Salah has already tied the 38-game season record for most goal contributions. He is well on track to eclipse the single-season assist record set by Thierry Henry, and he is only marginally off the pace that would see him claim his goals record back from Erling Haaland too.
Or if overall statistics are more your thing, Salah is up to fifth in the all-time Premier League scoring charts, and 10th in the assist stakes. The vast majority of those who remain above him have played significantly more games.
Even if Salah was the least "aesthetic" player ever to have graced the Premier League, how could that not be world class? Just think about it for a second.
Which brings us on to the delightfully fluffy "feeling" that defines a world-class player in the eyes of Troy Deeney. Reading between the lines, it's somebody who can do some cool flicks and tricks.
Yet even if you insist on this ridiculous criterion, Salah should still qualify. This season alone, he has added a trivela cross into his regular repetoire, pulling off this high-tariff skill with unerring consistency.
And in years gone by, he has routinely weaved through entire defenses. A snowy day against Deeney's own Watford side comes to mind.
I hope for Deeney's sake that he is just clueless, because otherwise he is acting in some serious bad faith. Salah should not have to put up with such ridiculous opinions in 2025, and it's about time pundits like this were called out.
