Paul Merson shared that he thought Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah should be named this season’s PFA Player of the Year.
The former Arsenal midfielder along with his fellow Soccer Saturday pundits debated who should be seen as the PFA Player of the Year, and Merson revealed that it was an easy choice for him.
“It is Salah all day for me,” said Merson, as quoted by Sky Sports’ website.
“What he has done in his first season at Liverpool is phenomenal.
“Nobody would have expected that, over 20 goals from out wide, while he’s also scored big goals in big football matches – he’s the complete package with his work rate and pressing.
“You take Salah out of Liverpool and they’re much weaker whereas Man City can survive without De Bruyne.”
Merson went on to state that he considered Tottenham’s Harry Kane as a potential contender for being named PFA Player of the Year, but due to no one expecting Salah to be so good, he chose the Liverpool attacker.
“You could put Harry Kane in the mix as he has been great again, but I can’t imagine anybody seeing this coming from Salah,” stated the Sky Sports pundit.
“I saw him at Chelsea and couldn’t have expected him to do so well.”
OPINION
While Merson’s fellow Soccer Saturday pundits seemed to struggle to decide between Kevin De Bruyne and Salah, the former Gunners midfielder seemed to have no issues picking. Merson acknowledged both De Bruyne and Kane as contenders but couldn’t look past Salah as he had defied expectations. The 25-year-old has a terrible time with Chelsea in the Premier League and everyone seemed to think that for this reason, he wouldn’t be able to make it at Anfield after joining the Reds in the summer. However in hindsight, when you consider Salah only played 19 times for Chelsea, it was a huge assumption to make.