Liverpool are looking for their Mohamed Salah successor, according to reports. It appears the Reds have a choice of two.
Replacing Mohamed Salah is a nightmare scenario for Liverpool and one that hopefully doesn’t occur for some time. He’ll be 30 next year, though – it has to happen sometime.
The real problem is finding a way to replace the Egyptian and keep the team strong. Go for a player too young and they’ll need years to develop. That means years without an elite player there.
Ideally, Liverpool would sign someone who can move into their prime over the next four or five years. That places them perfectly to take over from an ageing Salah.
It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that the Reds have two such players in mind. Il Giornale believes Liverpool bid for Federico Chiesa this summer. Globo Esporte quotes Raphinha’s agent Deco as saying that the club made an approach over the Brazilain.
Those are two exciting and very expensive players. So which one makes the most sense for Liverpool going forward?
Which Momahed Salah successor works best?
Honestly, both players would be wonderful and each boasts the attacking flair & defensive work-rate that fits Liverpool.
Raphinha, for instance, is a fantastic attacking player. He’s scored three goals from the right-wing this season and creates two chances per game on average.
Everyone can see how good his dribbling is, too. Raphinha is just magic when at his best.
The Brazilian also offers a great ability to win the ball back. He’s currently averaging 1.7 tackles per game and he kept that average above one last season, too. It’s easy to see how that works in Liverpool’s team press – it’s why Marcelo Bielsa loves him, after all.
But in that regard, Chiesa is something else. He currently makes an average of 2.3 tackles per game – an unbelievable rate for an attacking player. Last season he kept a 1.6 average, too.
On the other hand, Chiesa isn’t quite as creative as Raphinha. He’s creating 1.8 chances per game this season, which is his career-high, compared to Leeds man’s 2.0 – a figure he kept up last season.
Both are great fits for Liverpool, then, in slightly different ways. So perhaps a key factor here is what they’ve shown in their careers so far.
Raphinha has already proven to be a wonderful Premier League player. There’s no doubt that he can thrive in England as he does it every week.
Chiesa doesn’t have that. What he does have, though, is a Euro 2020 to remember. The young Italian was one of the best players for the eventual winners, popping up with some incredible moments in the knockout rounds.
We might just about put more weight into that than Raphinha’s Premier League displays. Chiesa showed this summer that he can win the biggest trophies and prove decisive – Raphinha doesn’t have that yet.
We’re not sure what it would take to secure either player financially, either. We suspect Chiesa would cost more coming from Juventus but Premier League sides don’t sell cheap either.
We’d be thrilled with either as a successor to Salah but if Liverpool can get him, Chiesa might be the one for us. Just.
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