I don’t agree they’d have got nowhere near CL qualification without Salad. They got there last season without him.
If he wasn’t there other players may have stepped up and whoever was playing instead of him would also have scored goals.
We get accused of being a one man team too. However, when Kane was out, we demolished Bournemouth and Swansea and beat Chelsea at their place.
I hate The Dippers as much as the next man but they are genuine top 4 contenders with or without Salad.
Ifs and buts, of course.
However, take his 32 league goals out, and I doubt they get replaced or Liverpool win as many games, genuinely.
And thats not bitterness. His goals were often key, getting the first for example to break the deadlock. I really dont think they could have replaced that sufficiently to maintain a 5 point lead over Chelsea (2 points going into the last day).
And that is a badly misfiring Chelsea. It was a close run thing WITH Salah, without? I dont think we can say with confidence they would have got top 4.
And I don't buy all this paranoia either. We get a tonne of praise as a club, as does Harry as a player. But sometimes there is stick too. It's no big deal imo.
Liverpool have had plenty of stick for their defence, their goalkeeping situation, for cashing in on Coutinho in Jan, for tapping up Van Dyke and not completing the deal in teh summer and then not buying an alternative. Oh and their rock and roll football which many call naive. Shall I go on
Yes Salad is a forward and Liverpool are set up to get the best out of him, Mane and Firminho. Anything wrong with that? Isn't it every teams intention to get the best out of their forwards, score goals and win games? Salad has 44 goals and 14 assists. Firminho 27 goals 16 assists, Mane 19 goals 8 assists. Klopps plan has worked
Salad is a wide forward just like Hazard, Sanchez, Sane, Sterling, Mane, Son etc How many of them have ever scored over 40 goals in an english season.
I believe it's a one off season and he won't do it again. If you think it's no big deal what he has achieved then I guess you expected them from the start of the season and in that case you are in a tiny minority of one because no-one had Salad as a contender for the golden boot
Dont confuse sites like this with the media. I see very little in the way of negative
press to Liverpool, never do. And never with the sort of glee and revelry we face when it turns against us.
Praise for us is always with a caveat, is always taken down a notch. Criticism is delivered with far to much enthusiasm, as is empty speculative talk.
Look at Pool this last week. Despite getting gobbled off all season long, they underperformed compared to themselves last season. And the gobbling continues in place of celebrating the genuine successes of City. Its bizarre.
Negatives? Always with that positive caveat. "Yes the defense is bad, but with this player theyll win the league!"
Its not paranoia, its observation.
The caveat of "wide forward" is framed as such as to add a dimension to his achievement. Which Im not looking to downplay, he has done brilliantly, but I am looking to not talk up unecessarily.
Interesting you point to his team mates, notice how they scored significantly less than him? Wonder if, perhaps, its because they were playing in service to him? Thats my point - he was the focal point on the team. Everything was set up for him. "Wide" is irrelevant.
And I must reiterate - Im not talking down his achievement. He has been remarkable, Im just trying to put it in its proper place and not get on the hype train.
I don't think there was ever really the headlines you claim about Kane. Yes fans of other teams made claims that he was just a one season wonder, just as it seems there are some fans on here who have a suspicion that Salad will be one of those (wrongly IMO. While I think he has had a particular purple patch this season and things will be harder for him next season as teams pay him special attention, I still think he will be a 20+ per season goal scorer for Liverpool if he says there).
Kane got a huge amount of positive press, akin to what Salad is currently getting when he won the golden boot in the previous seasons.
Yes Harry has been the butt of jokes since claiming the disputed goal. I think any high profile player would've got the same treatment though to be fair.
I have to disagree, on both counts.
I do not recall anything like as much praise for him. And I really do believe if it was, for example, Salah claiming that goal - the press/reporting/reaction would have been entirely different. It would have been "If it touched him then he should get it, he is going for the golden boot"