{"id":479079,"date":"2025-10-06T22:50:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T22:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/479079\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T22:50:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T22:50:14","slug":"josko-gvardiol-admits-one-liverpool-player-is-as-good-as-haaland-and-even-messi-on-his-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/479079\/","title":{"rendered":"Josko Gvardiol admits one Liverpool player is as good as Haaland and even Messi on his day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Josko Gvardiol has issued high praise to one Liverpool star, claiming he is on the same level as Manchester City\u2019s Erling Haaland and even Lionel Messi.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arne Slot\u2019s<\/a> side this season is filled with illustrious names. However, the Liverpool<\/a> squad hasn\u2019t quite gelled together as he would like.<\/p>\n

Naturally, bringing in an abundance of new players poses early problems, but with the likes of Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz<\/a>, Jeremie Frimpong and others, it\u2019s only a matter of time before they click.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/ Click to subscribe to the podcast \"\"\/ <\/a><\/p>\n

They need to connect with some of the existing stars too, including the crown jewel of Anfield \u2013 Mohamed Salah \u2013 who has been out of form<\/a>. Yet even the most fearsome Premier League defenders know how dangerous he can be on his day.<\/p>\n

\"MohamedPhoto by Carl Recine\/Getty ImagesJosko Gvardiol hails Mo Salah on Erling Haaland and Lionel Messi\u2019s level<\/p>\n

In a social post with ESPN, Manchester City and Croatia centre-back Josko Gvardiol<\/a> was tasked with picking his three toughest opponents of all time. He was quick to name Lionel Messi, teammate Erling Haaland, and Liverpool\u2019s Mohamed Salah<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Salah has faced Gvardiol numerous times in recent years as City and Liverpool have battled for Premier League supremacy, with the Egyptian often finding the net in this fixture.<\/p>\n

To be placed alongside Haaland is one thing, but to be mentioned in the same breath as Messi is another. Salah will be remembered as one of the greatest of all time<\/a>, and Gvardiol\u2019s comments are testament to that.<\/p>\n

Gabby Agbonlahor compares Salah to Messi \u2013 but not in a good way<\/p>\n

The Egyptian has been compared to Messi recently, though not for the right reasons. Salah\u2019s work rate<\/a> has come under fire, with Gabby Agbonlahor drawing a less flattering parallel to the Argentine legend.<\/p>\n

Agbonlahor said: \u201cThe defensive part is right (about the criticism towards Salah) because the number of times Cucurella is going forward and it\u2019s two-v-one on Conor Bradley and Salah sort of tries to press a little bit then just stops and relaxes like we have seen [Lionel] Messi do time and time again over his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiverpool can\u2019t afford to be a man down defensively. You can tell when Mo Salah is not at it because defenders are starting to [say]: \u2018Go on try and run me\u2019. Cucurella and [Benoit] Badiashile were getting really tight to him and said: \u2018Go on try to run me on the outside\u2019 and whenever he did, they took the ball off him.<\/p>\n

\u201cCucurella had him in his pocket the whole 96 minutes. But what options do Liverpool have naturally to replace Salah? Frimpong can play on the right of midfield but he\u2019s not been at it this season so you can see why he\u2019s stayed on in games and can get you that goal. It feels harsh ever criticising him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still early in the season. I\u2019m sure Mo Salah is his biggest critic and knows he could have done better. Some of the chances he had at the weekend, cutting inside when Gakpo is making a run and Isak is not happy not getting a pass and Mo Salah is shooting a lot, but how many times has he scored cutting inside and bending it into the top corner? I\u2019m sure he will come good. It\u2019s hard to criticise Mo Salah, it just doesn\u2019t feel right, but Arne Slot has probably got to look at it and say: \u2018You\u2019ve got to do your defensive responsibilities.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the first half, with the outside of the boot and Isak puts it over the bar. If he scores that, you\u2019re going: \u2018Wow, Mo Salah\u2019. He\u2019s still got the levels of quality he has shown over his career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether the winger\u2019s form picks up remains to be seen, but the comparisons between the Argentine and the Egyptian at this moment in time aren\u2019t exactly positive ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josko Gvardiol has issued high praise to one Liverpool star, claiming he is on the same level as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,1103,4884,159039,2746,179,1128,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-479079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-erling-haaland","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-josko-gvardiol","13":"tag-lionel-messi","14":"tag-liverpool","15":"tag-mohamed-salah","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115329671505779596","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}