Luis Suarez or Mo Salah? Who is the better player?
The present vs the past of Liverpool FC, in the course of history these two strikers have been the stars of their team. Salah started a little late after joining them from AS Roma only if he did join Liverpool earlier he would’ve had won a lot more with Liverpool making him closer to being a club legend when he retires.
The classic fans of Liverpool FC debate about these two club icons about who is superior among them. Let’s find out.
Salah vs Suarez! 💪
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_EN) October 19, 2021
Who are you backing to find the back of the net? #beINUCL #UCL
Watch Now 👉 https://t.co/hkoevnV6B4 pic.twitter.com/lQ8pFSZ2iY
1: Personal Stats
The position of a player is very important when it comes to making G/A contributions for the team. In the case of Luis Suarez, he is a born striker who is always ready to destroy defences for scoring goals. On the other hand, it is a little difficult for Salah to score many goals as he is a winger and scoring from the wing is often more difficult compared to a striker. However, Salah still managed to get many goals to his name and to our surprise he is above many great strikers of the Premier League of this generation.
To be fair we should compare them based on the best years of their career in Liverpool. In the 2013/14 season, Luis Suarez while unstoppable while Salah took his revenge on Harry Kane in the 2017/18 season where he ended as the top scorer of the Premier League and also broke the record set by Luis Suarez.
There is a very thin gap in the stats of these two players although Suarez looks a bit ahead of Salah in the total G/A contributions.
Overall Career Statistics:
The above stats suggest that Suarez has scored a lot more in his career than Salah for Liverpool and Real Madrid. One thing that we should keep in mind is that Salah is almost 6 years younger than Suarez and has almost played half the number of matches he has played in his entire career. It is likely that if Salah continues with the current pace he will eventually overtake him to be the greatest striker in the history of Liverpool.
As things stand Luis Suarez is ahead of Mo Salah, he wins in this category.
Can this embarrassing Salah vs Suarez debate end please? Salah is laughably clear #LFC pic.twitter.com/vRiIQtxq69
— Michael SNM1 (@SNM1Michael) November 21, 2020
2: Titles
The ex-FC Barcelona player lifted many titles in his career during his time in Spain. He won a total of 18 titles in his career with different clubs where he won the top scorer title in four different leagues. During his time at Liverpool, he only won the League Cup but his fate changed after moving to La Liga where he won the majority of his titles.
One of the main players who changed the fate of Liverpool in a very short span Mohammed Salah won two of the most important titles thereby conquering both the Premier League and Europe. The player has won a total of 8 titles in his career which is pretty less considering how good Mo Salah is. If he did not move to Roma the story would’ve been different but many people suggest that the transfer shaped him to be the player he is today. Mo Salah might have fewer trophies but he has successfully conquered England twice unlike Suarez.
Based on the number of titles won Suarez is miles ahead of Mo Salah.
The only player to score 32 Premier League goals in a single 38-game season.
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) June 15, 2021
Liverpool's all-time top scorer in the #UCL era.
The third-fastest player in club history to score 100 goals.
A Premier League and #UCL winner.
Happy birthday, @MoSalah. 🇪🇬👑 pic.twitter.com/vgMKTiRaRn
3: International Career
The Egyptian king is always down for his country whenever they need them even if it comes with the price of missing a few Premier League matches. He reached the AFCON final against Senegal who is led by his Liverpool teammate Sadio Mane, it ended as a defeat for Mo Salah as he did not win the competition.
The memory of Suarez saving the goal from his hand is enough for us to understand that he is passionate about his country. He won Copa America for Uruguay where he was the main player during the competition. During the entire course of his career, he gave brilliant performances to keep his nation’s flag high.
In this category, Suarez is ahead of Salah.
Carrying #Egypt on our shoulders, wherever we are. Congrats to @MoSalah - the first ever Egyptian Premier League Winner! 🇪🇬 #مصر #محمد_صلاح pic.twitter.com/D288jtRQjr
— Rania A. Al Mashat (@RaniaAlMashat) July 23, 2020
4: Individual Honours
The biggest achievement for any striker is to win the golden boot or be the highest scorer of his league and Suarez has done that in many leagues. He is the player who broke the Messi-Cristiano dominance in La Liga and snatched the Pichichi for himself. Meanwhile, Salah has been making a name for himself in Liverpool who came from behind to win the Premier League Golden Boot twice.
Honours of Luis Suarez:
- Ajax Player of the Year: 2008–09, 2009–10
- Dutch Footballer of the Year: 2009–10
- Eredivisie Golden Boot: 2009–10
- IFFHS World’s Best Top Division Goalscorer: 2010, 2014, 2016
- Copa América Best Player: 2011
- Copa América Team Of The Tournament: 2011
- PFA Team of the Year: 2012–13 Premier League, 2013–14 Premier League
- Liverpool Player of the Season: 2012–13, 2013–14
- PFA Players’ Player of the Year: 2013–14
- FWA Footballer of the Year: 2013–14
- Premier League Player of the Season: 2013–14
- Premier League Golden Boot: 2013–14
- FSF Player of the Year: 2013–14
- European Golden Shoe: 2013–14, 2015–16
- Trofeo EFE: 2014–15
- UEFA Champions League Team of the Season: 2014–15, 2015–16
- ESM Team of the Year: 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16
- FIFA Club World Cup Golden Boot: 2015
- FIFA Club World Cup MVP of the Final Match Trophy: 2015
- La Liga Pichichi Trophy: 2015–16
- Copa del Rey top scorer: 2015–16
- La Liga World Player of the Year: 2015–16
- Barcelona Player of the Season (Trofeo Aldo Rovira): 2015–16
- UEFA La Liga Team of The Season: 2015–16, 2016–17
- FIFA FIFPro World11: 2016
- La Liga Player of the Month: May 2016, December 2017, October 2018, December 2019
- Trofeo Alfredo Di Stéfano: 2020–21
Individual Honours of Mohammed Salah:
- UAFA Golden Boy: 2012
- Swiss Super League Player of the Year: 2013
- El Heddaf Arab Footballer of the Year: 2013, 2017, 2018
- A.S. Roma Player of the Season: 2015–16
- Globe Soccer Best Arab Player of the Year: 2016
- CAF Team of the Year: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
- CAF Africa Cup of Nations Team of the Tournament: 2017
- Premier League Goal of the Month: January 2021, October 2021
- BBC African Footballer of the Year: 2017, 2018
- African Footballer of the Year: 2017, 2018
- Goal Arab Player of the Year: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
- PFA Players’ Player of the Year: 2017–18
- FWA Footballer of the Year: 2017–18
- Premier League Golden Boot: 2017–18, 2018–19
- Premier League Player of the Season: 2017–18
- PFA Premier League Team of the Year: 2017–18, 2020–21
- Liverpool Players’ Player of the Season Award: 2017–18, 2020–21
- PFA Fans’ Player of the Year: 2017–18, 2020–21
- UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season: 2017–18
- ESM Team of the Year: 2017–18
- Onze d’Argent: 2017–18
- Honorary Citizen of the Chechen Republic: 2018
- Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine: 2018
- UEFA Men’s Player of the Year Award: 2018 (3rd place)
- FIFA Puskás Award: 2018
- The Best FIFA Men’s Player: 2018 (3rd place)
- FIFA Club World Cup Golden Ball: 2019
- FSA Player of the Year: 2018, 2021
- Time 100: 2019
- GQ Middle East Man of The Year Award: 2019
- Fans’ Footballer of the Year award: 2020, 2021
- IFFHS CAF Men’s Team of The Year: 2020, 2021
- IFFHS Best CAF Men’s Player of the Decade: 2011–2020
- IFFHS CAF Men’s Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
- Laureus Sporting Inspiration Award: 2021
- Golden Foot: 2021
- IFFHS Best CAF Men’s Player of the Year: 2021
It is tough to decide a winner when you have two extremely good players in front of you. Both of them have won plenty of individual honours for the great performances they have. However, Mo Salah is slightly ahead of Luis Suarez in this category with a variety of titles under his belt.
#LFC's Kenny Dalglish presents the Golden Boot to Luis Suarez as the best goal scorer in all Euro Leagues last season pic.twitter.com/QxkZdXDZ6U
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) October 15, 2014
Is Luis Suarez better than Mo Salah?
The above figures might already make you think that we know who will be the winner in this category but there is a twist. Despite winning in a majority of the above categories Suarez is not ahead of Salah at least not with Liverpool’s perspective. Being a winger Salah has given far better-attacking stats than Suarez did in the Premier League. If we compare the teams they used to play within their career we all know that Suarez got to play with the best and that helped him in earning more goals and titles to his name.
Another crucial point is that should be kept in mind is the age difference between these two players, there is almost 6 years of gap in their age. If Mo Salah does everything right he can easily get past Suarez in future.
If we compare based on the entire career until now Luis Suarez easily wins but this result might change in the coming future.