Liverpool great Ian Rush has branded Mohamed Salah’s seventh place finish in the Ballon d’Or rankings as a “joke” and believes the forward is right up there with the best.
The Liverpool forward was one of 30 nominees for the prestigious award, which was hosted for the first time since 2019 because of the pandemic in Paris on Monday night.
Recall that Lionel Messi was awarded the Ballon d’Or for the seventh time.
However, in an interview with Gambling.com, Rush feels the fact that Liverpool’s 29-year-old talisman is consistently delivering the goods in Europe’s toughest league should’ve been taken into account.
“Congratulations to Lionel Messi on winning the Ballon d’Or for an incredible seventh time but for Mohamed Salah to finish seventh on the list is a bit of a joke to me. I can understand the likes of Messi and Robert Lewandowski finishing ahead of him – they’ve both won major honours and scored plenty of goals – but Salah is right up there with them and should have been in the top three in my opinion.
“From where I’m standing, Salah is the best player in the most difficult league in the world to play in, and that should have been factored in. He’s been in the best form of his life over the past year and he’s only come seventh? Come on!
“He’s getting better and better and I don’t think the Ballon d’Or outcome reflects that fairly. I might be biased, but from a personal point of view I’m disappointed with the result. In my view, Lewandowski and Salah are the two best players in world football right now.
“I’ve nothing against any of the players who finished above Salah – they’re all world class players – but maybe too much emphasis is put on what players achieve with their international teams. Messi won the Copa America with Argentina and Jorginho won the Euros with Italy. Those two nations are always likely to be in the mix at major international tournaments and it puts players like Lewandowski and Salah at a disadvantage with Poland and Egypt respectively.
“I can resonate with their situation because with Wales I always found it a lot harder to get chances and score goals and never played at a major tournament. Success comes more naturally to the bigger footballing nations because they have bigger and better pools of players to choose from, and I think that should be considered when voting takes place on who has been the best player in the world each year.”
Liverpool Transfer Speculation
Rush also spoke on the need for the Reds to keep hold on Joe Gomez from joining Steve Gerrard’s Aston Villa during the January transfer window.
He advised Liverpool coach, Jurgen Klopp not to offload any of his players regardless of their performance in the team.
“Transfer rumours are beginning to circulate, as always at this time of year, and one of the names being linked with a move away from Anfield is Joe Gomez, who has struggled for gametime this season as he continues his comeback from a bad injury last season.
“Apparently Steven Gerrard is interested in bringing him to Aston Villa and I can see why – he’s a quality player and there’s no doubt he would strengthen Aston Villa, that’s all Stevie will have in his mind.
“But I think Liverpool would be wise to keep hold of him. There are always transfer rumours when the January transfer window is around the corner and it’s difficult to know what to believe, but I don’t see Liverpool looking to offload many players. From Joe’s point of view, I suppose he will be starting to think about the 2022 World Cup. He’ll want to be a part of that but he needs to be playing regular football if he’s to go to Qatar. But if he can get a few more games under his belt and get his match fitness up then I still see him as a key part of this Liverpool squad.
“We’ll just have to see how it pans out for him, but I think January would be too soon for him to jump ship. I’d like to see him stay and fight for his place because, for me, when he’s in peak condition he’s a world class defender.”
Keane and Carragher’s Heated Debate
The Liverpool legend also expressed joy to have mentioned in the controversial debate between Roy Keane and Jamie Carragher as they discussed Cristiano Ronaldo’s role at Man United.
The Portugal international was left on the bench by caretaker boss Michael Carrick as the Red Devils managed to earn a 1-1 draw at Chelsea.
“Like most football fans I was tuned in to Sky Sports on Sunday when Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane had their blazing row about Cristiano Ronaldo, and I have to say I was quite pleased to have been mentioned as an example of a striker who was able to press and score goals at the same time.
“I think it was the only thing the two pundits agreed on so it was pretty amusing. They’re both great pundits and it was great entertainment, that’s what they’re there for, but they’re both passionate as well and their arguments are genuine.
“But to be mentioned as someone who scored goals and also chipped in with pressing, it was nice for that to be acknowledged all these years later. The pressing game isn’t something that was only invented recently, as some people seem to believe. We were doing it at Liverpool in the 80s.
“If the ball was played to a full-back, and I felt as though I had a chance of winning it, I would press. Then Kenny Dalglish would press, then Graeme Souness would press, then Alan Hansen would press – we played it as one group.
“I think that’s where teams tend to get it wrong today. In order for it to work, you have to go together. If I had gone to press and my team-mates weren’t ready to back me up, I’d have gotten a shout from Dalglish not to go.
“That’s the secret of the pressing game, it doesn’t do the team any favours if you only do it individually, you have to do it collectively. But you also need a trigger, someone to set the press in motion – I was that trigger. If I felt I could win the ball and I didn’t get a shout to hold back, then I knew my team-mates were right behind me ready to win the ball.
“Nine times out of 10 we’d get the ball back or we’d force it out of play. That’s how it worked for us at Liverpool and that’s still how it works today under Klopp. A lot of work goes into it on the training pitch.
“By pressing as individuals, you’re just wasting energy that should be spent going forward. Manchester United looked a lot more organised against Chelsea but if you look back at the Liverpool game where they tried to press as individuals, Liverpool just walked right through them.
“Against Chelsea, you could see they were working more as a team and they got a result out of it. Just on the topic of United and pressing, Ralf Rangnick has come in as manager on an interim basis and it’s an interesting appointment.
“I was listening to Klopp’s comments on Rangnick and he only had good words to say, which tells us a lot, so I’m expecting a lot more from United in the coming months.”
