BT Sport pundit Chris Sutton has said that he would take Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah over Chelsea’s Eden Hazard every day of the week.
The Egyptian has been criticised by some for having a relatively down season after last campaign’s monumental success, while Hazard is the belle of the ball at the moment after his brace against West Ham United on Monday.
Sutton has had his say: “Hazard 28 goals, 16 assists the last two seasons, Salah 50 and 17 so it has to be Salah – every day of the week,” he told BT Sport.
“Salah scores goals, Hazard doesn’t. Liverpool are in a title race, Champions League. Chelsea: Europa League, may get top six,” he finished.
?? Hazard ? Salah ??
"Salah scores more goals but Hazard is probably more talented."
What do you think? pic.twitter.com/kS6EjhTR2V
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) April 13, 2019
OPINION
Sutton is an arch irritator, but you can’t simply use statistics as the only judge of how good a player is. Salah’s numbers are obviously better than Hazard’s, but they play in two different positions. Salah has better statistics than N’Golo Kante too, but it’s irrelevant because they play different positions. Hazard is not an out and out attacker in the same way that Salah is. The Egyptian’s game is centred around scoring goals, whereas Hazard’s isn’t. He gets on the scoresheet fairly regularly, of course, but he is in there to be creative more so than being a goalscorer. Salah is in the team to score goals, Hazard is there to create them. Those are their primary functions in their teams, meaning that you cannot compare them purely in terms of statistics. Hazard is a more talented player than the Liverpool man, that’s pretty difficult to argue. Perhaps Salah is more consistent in terms of production, but in terms of who is the better player you have to go with the Chelsea star at this stage.
