Gary Lineker, Micah Richards and Alan Shearer have all named their greatest ever Premier League front-three’s.
Having had the super trio of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino win the lot over five years together, Liverpool have a very strong claim in this particular debate.
But so too do Manchester United, who’s triumvirate of Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo was equally as potent.
Lineker, Richards and Shearer sat down to discuss who comes out on top in the latest Match of the Day: Top 10 podcast. Shearer goes first and as the Premier League’s all-time top goalscorer, his opinion holds a fair amount of weight. After taking a moment to decide, the former Newcastle man opted for Liverpool.
“Firmino just dropping deep and then Salah running in behind, how many times did you see that,” Shearer raved. “We all knew it was happening, but very few could stop it.”
Richards disagreed, naming Manchester United’s fabled trio as the best to ever do it. This left Lineker with the deciding vote, and the Match of the Day presenter stuck with Micah.
“I’m going to go Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez,” he said. “It’s by a fraction, it’s a really difficult one.”
Debating the greatest trios
We’re sorry, but it’s time to put to bed one of the biggest Premier League myths of all time. Man United’s front-three was excellent, but they simply didn’t have the staying power of Liverpool’s iconic trio.
For a start, the three only played together at Old Trafford for two years. Yes, they won the league title in both of those seasons, as well as a League Cup and the Champions League, but in terms of goal-scoring, they come up slightly short.
Between the three players, they scored 92 Premier League goal across the two campaigns. Much of the heavy lifting was done by Ronaldo, who scored 49 all by himself. It works out at an average of 46 strikes per campaign.
Contrast that to Salah, Mane and Firmino, who played for five years at the highest level, also winning the glut of trophies of their United counterparts, as well as an additional FA Cup.
Salah scored 118 league goals in that time, Mane bagged 77 and Firmino 50. That’s 245 across five seasons. 49 per season on average.
Not much between the six, no. But when you take into account how difficult it is to maintain these kinds of numbers year after year in the Premier League, we think Liverpool’s front-three wins relatively comfortably.
Perhaps only in time will Salah, Mane and Firmino be given their full due. But make no mistake, these three were great. Ronaldo and Tevez did it at other clubs both inside and outside England. Salah, Mane and Firmino will always be synonymous with Liverpool. For that reason, they’re the best front-three this country has ever and likely will ever see.
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