Home » Teams » Liverpool » Scouting Liverpool Target Mohamed Salah – The ‘Egyptian Messi’

Scouting Liverpool Target Mohamed Salah – The ‘Egyptian Messi’

Mohamed Salah

Mohamed Salah, dubbed as the ‘Egyptian Messi’, is a 21-year old winger who is currently amid speculation of a move to Liverpool, the Reds may face competition from [guess who?] Tottenham as the Londoners have recently spotted watching the player in two Champions League fixtures when Basel played Chelsea in which Salah netted both home and away. Other clubs known to be interested are Galatasaray and Monaco. He’s a regular starter for the Egyptian national side and won CAF Most Promising African Talent of the Year in 2012. Salah has been on the radar for a few clubs around Europe for some time now, in fact, the option was on the there for him leave Basel over the summer, but Champions League football and the chance to add to his medal haul at Basel convinced him to stay. Salah’s desire for Champions League football will without doubt be a tipping point for any potential sale in January or next summer.

Basel had been watching Salah for some time and after the Port Said Stadium disaster the club organised a friendly match with the Egypt U23 team. This match took place on 16 March in the Stadion Rankhof, and despite the fact that Salah only played during the second half he scored two goals. The game ended in a 4–3 win for the Egypt U23. Basel then invited Salah to stay for a week’s training. On 10 April 2012, it was announced that Salah had signed for the Swiss club. The contract running for four years starting from 15 June 2012.

As of right now (13th January 2014) the winger has played in 47 league games for Basel, collecting 9 goals. The winger has also featured in 27 games for Egypt, scoring 17 goals. In the current Champions League campaign Salah has scored 2 goals in just 6 appearances, a simple bit of maths tells us that’s a goal every three games… from the wing.
His abilities don’t just reside in goal-scoring, he also has a decent record for creativity, so far in the 6 games this season in the Champions League Salah has created 7 goal-scoring opportunities for his teammates which have unfortunately not resulted in goals.

The Egyptian man also has a great eye for the pass, completing 77% of his passes this season so far (As per squawka)

Average Pass Accuracy:

Picture

Like most, I like my midfielders to play passes toward the attackers, you know, to score the goals. This is something that Salah seemingly has to his game; he has played a total of 15 passes forward this season, compared to 11 backward. The majority of his passes have been long-range, averaging at 13 metres, when pairing that with the 77% pass accuracy that’s pretty impressive.

Average Pass Length:

Picture

But, don’t let all the jargon get in the way of the actual, physical football. Here’s a compilation video of Salah in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu6jMk4d3kw

Published in permission with Steven Carson

Comments are closed.