Liverpool secured a comfortable win over Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon.
Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson has claimed that he would prefer Liverpool forward Mo Salah over Eden Hazard even though he thinks the Chelsea ace is the better player.
Both attackers were in action on Sunday afternoon as the Reds continued their Premier League title charge by beating the London club 2-0 at Anfield.
After Sadio Mane opened the scoring following a header in the second half, Salah scored a stunning goal from outside the area to secure a much-needed three points for his team.
Speaking to Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports News (13/04/2019 at 1:00 pm), Merson explained why it was a ‘weird one’ trying to pick one player from the two highly-rated attackers.
“One gets you 20 goals playing on the wing, that’s some doing,” Merson told Soccer Saturday. “Goals win football matches. Not individual performances. I don’t think Hazard gets enough goals for me. He’s doing well this season.
“It’s a weird one because Hazard’s the best player in the Premier League. I don’t think anybody scores that goal [against West Ham]. We talk about Kevin de Bruyne, he couldn’t score what Hazard did. But if you were a manager, I’d go with the goals of Salah. I know this sounds [odd], but Hazard’s the best player.”
There is no doubt that Salah and Hazard are two of the best attackers in the Premier League, with both players usually deploying a wide role than a forward role – but they have played up front before.
Over the course of the season, Salah has played 34 league games, scoring 19 goals and providing nine assists for his teammates [transfermarkt].
By contrast, Hazard, who scored a stunning solo goal against West Ham last Monday, has scored 16 goals and supplied 12 assists for his teammates [transfermarkt].
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