Paul Merson commits to unbelievable Liverpool claim that won’t sit well with fans
It’s difficult to look past Mo Salah for the Premier League player of the season award as of January 2.
The Egyptian international has registered a whopping 30 goal contributions in 18 league games at a rate of one every 52.9 minutes.
To put that into context, Cole Palmer (92.2), Alexander Isak (86.4), Bukayo Saka (85.06) and Erling Haaland (114) don’t come vaguely close to that figure with their efforts in the English top-flight in 2024/25.
With that in mind, you could forgive Liverpool fans for thinking Salah should be the out-and-out top contender for individual recognition.
Has Cole Palmer been better than Mo Salah?
Paul Merson was the only pundit on the four-man Soccer Special panel to back Cole Palmer over our No.11.
He argued that the former Roma wide man holds a clear advantage over the England international by virtue of playing in a better club team.
“I think Palmer has had a massive, massive difference to Chelsea, I think he’s made Chelsea a much better team, he’s been involved a lot more,” the former Arsenal star spoke on Sky Sports.
“Salah is playing in an unbelievable team with unbelievable players. This lad, I just think he’s a special, special player. Believe it or not, I think he’s more consistent than Salah in a game of 90 minutes. I think he’s evolved more.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love Salah; he’s different class, one of the best in the world. But sometimes you’ll watch Salah and he’ll do something and you’ll go, ‘Really?’, or he’ll put one over the bar and you’ll go, ‘Really?’.
“This lad consistently… the thing with Salah, he can not touch the ball and score two goals in two minutes. But this kid, I just think he’s carried Chelsea, he’s been a catalyst. I don’t think Salah’s been a catalyst, I think he’s been in a very good team.
“This lad has taken Chelsea to the brink of hopefully getting into the Champions League and two weeks ago they were in the title race, in my opinion, before the Everton game.”
You can’t look past Salah
We’d wholeheartedly agree with Merson that Liverpool can call upon a more formidable and experienced starting-XI.
That said, in a side that’s supposedly affording our forwards every opportunity, it can’t be ignored that Mo Salah is significantly exceeding his fellow attackers as far as minutes per goal contribution is concerned.
| Player | Goals | Assists | Minutes per goal contribution |
| Mo Salah | 17 | 13 | 52.9 |
| Diogo Jota | 6 | 2 | 94.6 |
| Cody Gakpo | 11 | 4 | 94.9 |
| Luis Diaz | 12 | 3 | 102.6 |
| Darwin Nunez | 4 | 3 | 175.5 |
Our Egyptian King has most certainly benefitted from a comparatively more regular supply of minutes, but there can be no questioning the fact he’s taking full advantage of them.
Even in a very good Liverpool side, these numbers are stratospheric.
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