Comparing Salah, Firmino & Mane front 3 with Ronaldo, Rooney & Tevez | OneFootball

Manchester United and Liverpool have both had iconic attacking trios in the Premier League era – but how do they compare?

United signed Cristiano Ronaldo in 2003 and Wayne Rooney in 2004 before adding Carlos Tevez to their attacking options in 2007.

The trio helped United win two Premier League titles, the Champions League, the FIFA Club World Cup, the Community Shield and a League Cup over the following two seasons before Ronaldo and Tevez left in 2009.

“Tevez for a year with Rooney and Ronaldo was just breathtaking, it was out of this world,” Gary Neville said in 2020. “Not just because of the quality of the players, but there was a selfish, horrible, nasty determination with those three.

“Ronaldo in a different way on the pitch, he wouldn’t go around kicking and hassling people, hustling, he was immense in terms of his performance levels, but Rooney and Tevez were street fighters but with unbelievable ability and there was something of that front three.

“The best front three in the Premier League, you’ll never beat those three for me.”

But Liverpool fans will argue that the Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane front three can rival Rooney, Tevez and Ronaldo.

Since Salah arrived at Anfield in 2017, Liverpool have ended their long wait for a Premier League title and have also won the Champions League, the FA Cup, the League Cup, the FIFA World Club Cup and a European Super Cup.

The trio was broken up when Sadio Mane left for Bayern Munich in the summer of 2022, but they have since replaced him with Darwin Nunez.

We’ve taken a look at the stats for both attacking trios to see who comes out on top. Note: we’ve only included stats for when all three players were at the club.

Mohamed Salah 2017-2022

Games: 254 Starts: 235 Sub appearances: 19

Goals: 156 Assists: 63

Penalties scored: 22

Minutes per goal: 132.7 Minutes per non-penalty goal: 154.5 Minutes per goal or assist: 94.5

Sadio Mane 2017-2022

Games: 240 Starts: 220 Sub appearances: 20

Goals: 107 Assists: 40

Penalties scored: 0

Minutes per goal: 179.1 Minutes per non-penalty goal: 179.1 Minutes per goal or assist: 130.3

Roberto Firmino 2017-2022

Games: 236 Starts: 185 Sub appearances: 51

Goals: 75 Assists: 52

Penalties scored: 2

Minutes per goal: 221.3 Minutes per non-penalty goal: 227.4 Minutes per goal or assist: 130.7

Total

Games: 730 Starts: 640 Sub appearances: 90

Goals: 338 Assists: 155

Penalties scored: 24

Minutes per goal: 167.1 Minutes per non-penalty goal: 179.8 Minutes per goal or assist: 114.5

Cristiano Ronaldo 2007-2009

Games: 102 Starts: 94 Sub appearances: 8

Goals: 68 Assists: 20

Penalties scored: 11

Minutes per goal: 124.6 Minutes per non-penalty goal: 148.6 Minutes per goal or assist: 96.2

Wayne Rooney 2007-2009

Games: 92 Starts: 78 Sub appearances: 14

Goals: 38 Assists: 27

Penalties scored: 0

Minutes per goal: 183.5 Minutes per non-penalty goal: 183.5 Minutes per goal or assist: 107.3

Carlos Tevez 2007-2009

Games: 99 Starts: 73 Sub appearances: 26

Goals: 34 Assists: 14

Penalties scored: 2

Minutes per goal: 203.4 Minutes per non-penalty goal: 216.1 Minutes per goal or assist: 144.1

Total

Games: 293 Starts: 245 Sub appearances: 48

Goals: 140 Assists: 61

Penalties scored: 13

Minutes per goal: 159.7 Minutes per non-penalty goal: 176.1 Minutes per goal or assist: 111.2