In-form Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford is still yet to reach the level of Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.
Rashford has been one of Europe’s standout players since the World Cup. His relentless scoring has led to calls that the 25-year-old is now ‘world-class.’ However, according to Jamie Carragher, Rashford is still a ‘level below’ the likes of Salah and Tottenham striker Harry Kane.
“He has always been a level below Harry Kane, Mohammed Salah or Sadio Mane when he was at Liverpool in my eyes,” Carragher wrote in his column for The Telegraph.
“If he reproduces this form season-after-season, he will deserve to be called world class.”
Rashford lagging behind in the goals column
As good as Rashford has been recently, this is a fair shout from Carragher. It isn’t as though the United man hasn’t been good before, but he’s never hit the kind of numbers he could have.
For example, let’s compare his stats against the three players Carragher mentions. Since Salah’s arrived at Liverpool for £35m in 2017, the Egyptian has scored 175 club goals. Mane has hit 118 for Bayern Munich and Liverpool in the same time period, while Kane smashed in 168 for Spurs.
In that five-and-a-half season timespan, Rashford has found the net a still respectable 98 times. Not far from Mane, but a way behind regular Golden Boot winners Salah and Kane.
Sneaking up the list
In terms of assists, Rashford moves up a couple of places on the list, setting up teammates 43 times since 2017. That’s more than Mane, who, with 32, was never a regular assister.
It’s also more than Kane, who claimed the vital pass 41 times – probably 90% of them for Son Heung-Min!
But Rashford still can’t get past our very own Mohamed Salah. The 30-year-old’s 65 assists since joining Liverpool mean he takes the cake in both goals and assists categories of these four players. Truly world-class.
Rashford still has a way to go until he reaches Mo’s level, that’s for sure. But what should be remembered is that the England international is quite a bit younger than this trio. At twenty-five he has at least four years on them all.
We’re not convinced he’ll ever be anything close to the level of the three players Carragher compares him against. He’s in a purple patch, you can’t deny that. But purple patches need to be elongated to season upon season to justify the claims coming his way. Maybe Rashford will end up reaching that. But we’d be surprised.