“I don’t know…” – Ex-Premier League boss fires retort at Troy Deeney over baffling Salah claim | OneFootball

Troy Deeney flung the cat among the pigeons over the weekend when he made the baffling claim that Mo Salah isn’t a ‘world class’ footballer.

The former Watford striker added that he’d rather see his children striving to emulate Vinicius Junior as a role model than the Liverpool attacker, although the 36-year-old did state that the Egyptian is ‘excellent’ and that his rapidly expiring contract should’ve been sorted out a long time ago.

Pardew not having Deeney’s comments on Salah

Speaking on talkSPORT after those blood-boiling comments, Alan Pardew retorted that Deeney ought to have provided more substantiation to back up his claim about our number 11 being short of ‘world class’ billing.

When asked if he thought that description could be applied to Salah, the former Newcastle manager replied: “Yes – numbers. If you look at his numbers, you’d have to say he is.

“When you look at the international team that he’s playing for, unfortunately, a little bit like Ian Rush when he was at Wales, he hasn’t really got the platform to do it at world level with his country.

“You know, it’s all good having an opinion, but if you’re going to have an opinion, back it up with some stats or some facts or some kind of foundation. I don’t know where Troy’s coming from with a foundation, because Vinicius, obviously, has got more tricks and is a little bit more flamboyant.

“Maybe that’s what he was aiming his conversation at more than Mo. Mo is no frills. There’s no frills. It’s efficiency that he’s about.”

(Photos by Dean Mouhtaropoulos and Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

Pardew is right – just look at Salah’s scoring numbers!

Credit to Pardew, he got to the crux of the matter straight away in his response to Deeney’s observations.

We’re sure you’re familiar with the goalscoring returns that Salah has racked up in seven-and-a-bit seasons at Liverpool, but let’s just serve a quick reminder – 221 in 366 games for the club (fifth-highest in LFC history), with at least 23 goals netted in each full campaign so far at Anfield (Transfermarkt).

The Egyptian looks certain to maintain that latter record for another year, having already accumulated 10 goals and 10 assists in the first three months of this term, and his consistency is underlined by him finding the net in eight of our 11 Premier League matches under Arne Slot up to now (Transfermarkt).

Maybe Deeney simply enjoys watching Vinicius Jr more than Mo, and he’s entitled to that view, but to state that the 32-year-old isn’t ‘world class’ despite hitting such continuously high scoring figures at an elite level felt like a mid-international break cry for attention.

All the while, Salah will probably smile to himself if he’s even aware of the storm that the ex-Watford striker has stirred up and simply get on with what he does best – stroking the ball past opposition goalkeepers into the back of their net.