“I never thought, why are we comparing? Both are world-class players, that’s it,” Jurgen Klopp was asked about Mohamed Salah at his pre-match press conference ahead of Liverpool’s famous defeat The similarities between Lage and Cristiano Ronaldo were answered in October 2021, Manchester United 5-0.
“I would say even though Ronaldo’s left foot is not that bad, Mo’s left foot is probably better, Cristiano’s aerial and right foot is probably better. In terms of pace, both are very quick and hungry for goals, so maybe that’s it. “
Others, probably those who don’t care about more important things, may approach the issue with greater enthusiasm, but that’s always hard to compare to a mistake. That version of Salah was in his life and Ronaldo was nearing the end of his career at the highest level, even if he hadn’t come to terms with it at the time.
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Ronaldo had two spells at Manchester United, but the only thing that united them was the number on the back of his shirt. In the first example he is an exciting winger known for his trickery, while in the second he is a pure box poacher who is otherwise largely anonymous.
We can understand the Portuguese’s evolution from crafty wide player to robotic assassin by looking at his dribbling statistics. WhoScored has data from the 2009 season, his first year at Real Madrid after a world-record transfer, and you can split the next 14 seasons into different parts.
His average number of dribbles per game (five) was unsurprising in his first three seasons at Real Madrid, but significantly increased between 2012 and 2015 (3.4) and between 2015 and 2018 (2.2). decline. He then rose slightly during his three years at Juventus (2.8), but by his standards he barely dribbled the ball during his brief return to United, averaging just once per game. Although non-linear, the overall downward trend reflects Ronaldo’s transition from winger to centre-forward and his ability to recognize where he can be most effective.
Looking at Salah’s recent numbers, he might be wise to take a page from Ronaldo. Salah, who joined Liverpool, is one of the most powerful dribblers in European football. In his first two seasons, his number of successful dribbles has entered the top ten in the Premier League, and he has completed it in the first three seasons. Most of the dribbles he attempted. .
However, his success rate dropped sharply in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons, returning further in the following two seasons (including this one). Salah’s dribbling accuracy is an all-time low at Anfield (26.5%), but his dribbling frequency is still quite high, as shown in the table below:
| season | 17/18 | 18/19 | 19/20 | 20/21 | 21/22 | 22/23 | 23/24 |
| try to take over | 3.9 | 4.1 | 2.6 | 2.5 | 4 | 3.7 | 3.2 |
| Success rate (percentage) | 62.7 | 53 | 60.2 | 42.9 | 42.7 | 37.3 | 26.5 |
The Egyptian has attempted the 20th-highest number of catches in the league this season, but his success rate is the worst of the group so far – only two players above him have a success rate of Within 10%. In fact, you’re all the way down to 54th before you find a player who’s not that happy (Bournemouth’s Hamid Traore, 23.8%).
Last season, it was a broadly similar story. He ranks sixth in attempts, but only two players in the top 20 and eight in the top 50 have a lower success rate.
In essence, Salah’s dribbling quantity is still very high, but his dribbling efficiency is getting lower and lower, and he cannot beat his opponents most of the time. We don’t know why this happens – you wouldn’t put it down to physical decline causing him to lose his initial acceleration ability, as he seems as sharp as ever in that regard, so maybe it’s down to the amount of physical opposition The head coach was sent to offer him an olive branch as part of a specially tailored game plan. Even then, he has all the more reason to be less direct and pass the ball to teammates to retain possession.
Unlike United’s version of Ronaldo, Salah can still influence games in other ways than just scoring goals, and he has become one of the league’s most outstanding playmakers. There’s enough evidence now that it’s time to focus on weapons beyond the dribble and show greater confidence in perhaps his most technically gifted teammate yet.