Darren Bent shares who he thinks offers more as a striker, Liverpool’s Mo Salah or Man City’s Erling Haaland

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Darren Bent has compared the qualities offered by Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Erling Haaland of Manchester City.

Salah and Haaland sit as numbers one and two in the Premier League scoring charts this season. After the international break they come head-to-head, as Liverpool travel to the Etihad.

It’ll take a monumental effort for Mo to overhaul the City striker as the division’s top marksmen this season. But nevertheless, speaking to TalkSPORT yesterday, Bent suggested that Liverpool’s Egyptian King is still a better rounded player.

“He’ll always get more assists than Haaland and Haaland will score more goals because he’s a beast. But Salah’s goal return will not be that far behind him,” explained the former England striker.

“I think probably Salah will offer you more because of the assists and the goals. There’s things that Haaland can do that Salah can’t, but I think there’s more things that Salah can do with a football that Haaland can’t.

“I can’t see Haaland beating three, four players in a small space and then scoring. But equally, two fantastic footballers.”

Mo versus Erling

Ask Liverpool fans who they’d prefer to have in their team, Salah or Haaland, and we don’t think it would be especially close.

Of course, the Norwegian is an absolutely phenomenal player. Few have scored goals at the rate he does throughout football history. Carry on like this and he’ll go down as one of the most lethal men ever to have played the sport.

But as Bent points out, Salah isn’t too shabby in-front of goal himself.

It’s true that last year, up against Haaland in the same league for the first time, Mo rather fell on his face. He still managed 19 in the end, but that matched the Egyptian’s lowest ever Premier League tally.

Meanwhile, Haaland smashed in 36 goals to obliterate Salah’s record for goals in a 38-game season. That will have hurt Mo, and he’s come out this campaign looking to take on all comers. Pundit Karen Carney backed Salah to outscore Haaland at the start of the season, and he’s still in with a shout.

It is 13 to 10 in the younger man’s favour, but the Reds man is hanging in there. He’ll be imploring his defenders to keep a handle on Haaland at the Etihad as he attempts to close in on his tally.

Still, over the course of the season, you’d always back Haaland to outscore anyone. Bent makes a great point about Salah’s other skills, though. That’s why we think Liverpool fans wouldn’t have too much of a decision to make here, Mo is an all-round threat. Haaland for all his efficiency, isn’t.

Nullify his supply lines and you can keep the 23-year-old at arms length. As City have found out all too often down the years, Salah is both supplier and finisher. We know who we’re picking. All hail the Egyptian King.