That's the tricky thing. It's so much easier to judge Messi and Ronaldo by their goal counts. But what if David De Gea is just as good of a goalkeeper as they are forwards? How do you measure it?Originally Posted by Loony BoB
And then, is it even right to judge forwards on goal alone? I know the old school view is yes, but if they're in a system where their job is to do something else, and they do that job well, why is scoring a goal better?
The example I can think of as a Liverpool fan is Roberto Firmino. He's scored 25 this season in all competitions which is really respectable, but it's not quite so impressive when compared to a certain Egyptian team mate. But I think - and I appreciate there are not a lot of people outside of Liverpool fans who think like this - he's actually a better player than Salah because the work he does off the ball, both out of possession in making tackles and in possession in making runs, helps the team more. I don't think it's that unreasonable to say Salah wouldn't have scored anywhere near as much if, say. Harry Kane was Liverpool's no. 9. But then Firmino probably wouldn't have been as effective either if Kane replaced Salah in the line up, so it works both ways.
I guess we'll see how effective the two of them are without the other in the World Cup!
They didn't qualify, but Wales (sorry Manus). I would agree about Egypt and Poland on paper, and also you could probably make a case for Colombia.
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