The Soccer Thread (Version 9)

Thrilling finish at Vicarage Road, where Watford stole two points at the death with a sweet Andre Gray goal on a deft touch from Deeney. I'm glad I was up at 7 for that one. Was a fun game.

 

Liverpool needed to win this one. Everton played with a lot of heart and the crowd sounded fantastic, but the skill gap was so huge that they needed to convert.

 

Wolves and Watford level on points for the Little 14 championship, which really should be a thing.

 

I take a lot of shit for this opinion, but Salah is the worst skilled football player going. He is so fucking soft.

 

He has a tendency too look fragile when he misses a chance that you don’t always associate with a top notch player.

 

The way he plays drives me insane. One-trick cherry picker with a heart of glass.

 

Whom would you trade him for?

 

Holy shit. I don’t even know how to respond to this.

You want to criticize him for being wasteful in front of goal, fine. But cherry picker?

Bet you love Harry Kane, tho.

 

Frankly, Mr. Shankly doesn’t know what you’re talking about.

 

And they still play again at Vicarage Road. Hornets won the first meeting 2-0 at Molineux.

 

Well, no trades in footy, but I think Aguero is light years better, for instance. When City needed him to light up, he lit up. Salah is fading right when Liverpool need him most. He plays like shit against big clubs in big games. He stacks his goal-scoring total with soft penalties and one-yard tap-ins against bad teams, and everyone is blinded by that single statistic. He's going to score about half of what he did last year, because he's not that hard to defend so long as you have some pace in the back. Pickford saved him on the breakaway this weekend because he knew where Salah was going to shoot and how. He is so left-foot dependent. You don't see this watching him on TV as much, but live, he does so little, it's maddening. So many times the opposition will build up a reasonable chance from their back because Salah trotted a yard before giving up on a play. I hate how he plays. Zero heart.

Last season, I was infuriated when he was getting compared to Messi and Ronaldo. They're not the same class of player. Salah is a good striker. He is not Messi or Ronaldo. Last season, Salah's average goal came from 11 yards out. Messi's came from 18. That means he scored a bunch of goal from 25 yards. Think about that. Messi is dangerous from anywhere. It's what makes him consistently great—he can't be defended against. Salah is dangerous from close range with one of his feet. You can't play like that in modern football and have sustained success. He's playing against the best defenders in the world, which is why he sucks against good teams. He's a master opportunist, but he's going to get fewer and fewer opportunities. His lock is too simple to pick.

 

He has 51 PL goals. 4 were from penalties.

Jesus Fucking Christ.