Arsene Wenger has backed Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah to follow in the footsteps of Barcelona attacker Lionel Messi.
The former Arsenal manager admitted he can see the 27-year-old replicating Messi in the future, but also shared how the Reds’ forward must find more consistency, as well as picking the right opportunity to shoot instead of pass.
Those comments come after teammate Sadio Mane lost his cool with Salah after the 3-0 victory against Burnley last time out after the winger decided to shoot rather than lay off a simple pass to the Senegalese international at Turf Moor.
Speaking to BeIN Sports, as quoted by Football.London, Wenger told Salah what he must do to be as consistent as Messi in years to come.
“He’s 20 goals away if you want to be as concrete as possible, but he has similarities with (Lionel) Messi. He must find the consistency of Messi,” he said.
“I find him as good a finisher but Messi has the full thing with the final ball as well. Salah is a bit obsessed now with finishing himself. It’s a dimension that he’ll get, certainly, when he grows a bit older to find the moment when you have to keep the ball and when you have to finish.”
OPINION
To compare any player to Messi in modern-day football is the ultimate compliment you could ever receive. Apart from Cristiano Ronaldo, the Argentinian international has achieved things that no other footballer may ever manage to do ever again in his career, with the number of goals he scores on a consistent basis. Messi has won the Ballon d’Or on five separate occasions and holds the record for the highest number of goals in one calendar year with an incredible 91 goals in 2012. Salah did have a great first year at Liverpool but must recreate that season for at least 10 consecutive seasons to ever be even considered to be like Messi, and to only score 22 goals in the Premier League season in the previous campaign only proves he is leaps and bounds behind. No one is saying that Salah’s record is poor, but that only proves how good Messi is for Barcelona, and even the slight comparison from Wenger is the best compliment for Salah to take and move forward with.
