Former Premier League winner Martin Keown has downplayed the impact of Liverpool attacker Mohamed Salah this season.
The 26-year-old has enjoyed another tremendous campaign for Jurgen Klopp’s team, but Keown doesn’t believe he’s done enough to be considered above some of his peers.
“He may be the Premier League’s joint top scorer with 19 goals but I understand why Mo Salah is not on the shortlist to defend his PFA Player of the Year crown,” he wrote in his Daily Mail column.
“Only in the last few weeks have I felt I have been watching the player who was devastating in front of goal last year. Liverpool team-mates Virgil van Dijk and Sadio Mane, who did make the cut, have been more influential this season.”
OPINION
There’s no doubt that Van Dijk has been more influential for Liverpool than Salah – and more so than any other Reds player. However, Mane is a more interesting case. There is undoubtedly some recency bias here. Since the turn of the year Mane has been tremendously impactful for Klopp’s side. However, at the start of the season Salah, though he wasn’t quite at his best, was certainly doing more than the former Southampton man. So it’s an interesting one to judge. Both attackers have been hugely important to Liverpool’s assault on English and European football, so to try and judge who has been more important is difficult. However, Keown is entitled to his opinion that Mane has been the more influential one this term. Perhaps that’s because people naturally like something new, whereas Salah is the reigning Player of the Year, but everyone is allowed their opinion. There’s no doubt, though, that if one more player was allowed on the shortlist it would be the Reds’ excellent Egyptian.
