Mohamed Salah has “had better seasons for Liverpool”, admits Jamie Carragher, but the Egyptian frontman is still considered to be one of the best and most unique talents in the Premier League.
A talismanic presence at Anfield is taking in a third campaign on Merseyside and the first two delivered Premier League Golden Boots and a Champions League winners’ medal.
Salah has contributed to UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup triumphs in 2019-20, while Liverpool stand on the brink of a first Premier League title.
He has reached the 20-goal mark for a third successive season, while taking his tally of league goals for the Reds to 70 through 100 appearances – a haul which betters the efforts of Luis Suarez and Fernando Torres.
Accusations of being selfish or not fully committed to the cause are never far away for Salah, but Carragher believes he remains one of the finest performers in English football.
Picking his Premier League Team of the Season, the Reds legend told Sky Sports: “Like [Roberto] Firmino, I think Salah has had better seasons for Liverpool, maybe even both of his previous two seasons, but he’s still right up there with the top goalscorers and the other goalscorers do not play on the right, they play as centre-forwards.
“I could not think of any other player in the league really who plays from that side who does as well as him.”
One of Salah’s partners in crime at Anfield is Sadio Mane, with the Senegal international another of those to have earned top billing from Carragher.
He added on the other wide forward in his XI of 2019-20: “It was a toss-up between Sadio Mane and Raheem Sterling, but Mane just has the edge this season.
“Sterling had a brilliant start to the season but has maybe gone just off the boil in the last couple of months.
“They basically both play on the left, so what I didn’t want to do is fudge it and put players out of position. So I have just got to go with Mane.
“He’s not just a goalscorer and he’s different from Salah, who I see as a real goalscorer, taking the penalties and looking to score every game. Mane is more involved in general play.”
Full-back pairing Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold also make the cut for Carragher, along with Reds skipper Jordan Henderson and commanding Dutch centre-half Virgil van Dijk.
Joe Gomez is slotted in next to his club colleague, with the England international held up as something of an unsung hero for Liverpool.
Carragher said of his decision to give the 22-year-old a defensive berth in his side: “I went for Joe Gomez as he has not lost a game. The one game Liverpool have lost this season away to Watford in the Premier League, he didn’t actually play.
“As a young player, he was in and out of the team at the start of the season because of his injury at the end of last season, but I think his performances have matched Van Dijk at different times and Liverpool’s defensive record is so much better than anyone else’s.”
With that record taken into account, and with Liverpool having boasted a 25-point lead at the top of the table prior to action shutting down amid the coronavirus outbreak, it comes as no surprise to find that Carragher picked Jurgen Klopp as his Manager of the Year.
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