OPINION
We’ve reached the time of the season where pundits and official bodies alike come out with their Premier League Teams of the Year and Players of the Year.
Liverpool can expect to have plenty of representation in both categories, but one player who surprisingly missed the cut in Peter Crouch’s Team of the Year is Reds man Mohamed Salah.
Writing about the snub in his Daily Mail column, Crouch said: “I felt terrible leaving out Salah, whose form in the past couple of weeks has gone up a level, and Bernardo Silva in particular but it is not a slight on their efforts.”
Attackers Sadio Mane, Sergio Aguero and Son Heung-min were picked ahead of Salah by Crouch, and the Egyptian has every reason to feel aggrieved by the former England international’s decision.
There certainly appears to be a bit of recency bias with the form of Mane and Son since the turn of the year. In the first half of the season Salah, despite being criticised for having a down year, was performing at a higher level than both those players.
Aguero, meanwhile, has missed a fair bit of time due to niggling injuries this term, whereas the Liverpool talisman has been a consistent performer for Jurgen Klopp’s side.
With that said, it’s a bit of a kick in the teeth for the 26-year-old. He has put together an extremely consistent body of work, but yet Crouch has gone for players who have produced higher highs but much lower lows this campaign.
He’d have very right to be fuming over this one, although it’s unlikely that Crouch’s opinion will be mirrored by too many other people. The criticism Salah has received this season has been absurd. He’s had a tremendous campaign.
