OPINION
Dean Saunders heaped praise on Crystal Palace attacker Wilfried Zaha but claimed the 26-year-old wouldn’t be able to get into Liverpool’s first-team.
The former Reds player revealed he thought the Palace attacker would get into Chelsea’s, Arsenal’s and Tottenham’s teams but wouldn’t be able to get into Jurgen Klopp’s side ahead of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane or Roberto Firmino.
Saunders made this claim despite describing Zaha as one, if not the, best player who currently featured in the Premier League for a team who doesn’t regularly finish in the top-six.
“I think most clubs would sign him, Man City have got six playing in the front at any one time,” said Saunders on talkSPORT (8:39am, Tuesday, July 2nd).
“Mahrez, Sterling, Sane, not going to get in front of them, Bernardo Silva, Jesus, Aguero, so not going to get in front of them.
“He’s not going to get in front of Salah, Mane, Firmino, he’s not going to get in front of them.
“He’d get in Tottenham’s team in my opinion, He’d probably get in Tottenham’s team in one of the wide areas, he’d definitely get in Arsenal’s team, Chelsea’s team? Pedro, William, Hazard has gone so he might get into Chelsea’s team.
“Erm they can’t sign him (Laura Woods reminded him of Chelsea’s transfer ban) but I definitely think he is one of the best players, there’s two or three, but he is one of the best players out of the top six.”
Saunders’ verdict on Zaha, who earns £130,000-a-week (Source: Spotrac), should leave many Liverpool fans feeling smug as it highlights how good the club’s current attacking trio are.
The former Red clearly rates Zaha so highly, and believes he is good enough for most of Liverpool’s top-six rivals bar Manchester City, so suggesting Klopp’s side don’t need him is a testament to how good Firmino, Salah and Mane are.
Also, the reason why Liverpool fans will be left smug about Saunders’ verdict on Palace’s Zaha, as there are stats which support his remarks.
When comparing Liverpool’s front three with Zaha based on their stats from the latest Premier League campaign, as collected by WhoScored, there is not one category Zaha beats every member of Reds’ attacking trio in.
Salah tops the most categories, as he scored the most goals, registered the most assists, averaged the most shots per game, had the highest average match rating and took home the most Man of the Match awards.
Zaha may occasionally beat one of the Reds attackers in a certain category, for example, he ended the season with four more assists than Mane; but the Senegal international makes up for by having 12 more goals to his name.
Also, it’s worth noting that Klopp probably wouldn’t be able to trust Zaha as much as his current Liverpool front-three for one clear reason.
That reason being Zaha’s disciplinary record.
The 26-year-old racked up 10 yellows cards and one red card across his league outings which is drastically worse than any of Liverpool’s first-choice attackers as Mane has the worst record out of them with two bookings to his name.
