Liverpool past and present: Suarez vs Salah - at their best, who was better?
To say Liverpool have boasted some impressive goalscorers over the past ten years would be an understatement.
The previous decade started with Fernando Torres spearheading the Reds attack, with Luis Suarez replacing the Spaniard in 2011 and said decade ending with Mohamed Salah firing home for fun.
It's the latter pairing that come under the microscope in the second edition of our series comparing the best WhoScored rated season's of iconic players, with our Twitter audience voting on the past and present Liverpool pairing to go head-to-head.
At their best, who was better?
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) April 7, 2020
Having last week compared our peak seasons of Cesc Fabregas and Mesut Ozil today we're asking you to vote on our next edition
Remember, the players will be compared on their respective highest rated season alone...
First of all, let's clear up the season's in question that are being compared, and although Suarez notched a monumental 40 LaLiga goals in his second season at Barcelona, his farewell campaign at Anfield in 2013/14 remains his top rated.
As far as Salah is concerned there is considerably less controversy in the Egyptian's highest rated campaign, with his debut season on Merseyside (2017/18) going toe-to-toe with his predecessor here.
On the face of it there is extremely little to choose between the pair as far as their goal contributions in said seasons are concerned. Salah managed to outscore Suarez and in the process break the Uruguayan's Premier League record for the club, scoring 32 to the South American's 31.
Meanwhile it was Suarez who edged out the current Kop hero in terms of assists, 12 to 10. Both had a remarkable attacking output in that sense, but Suarez was arguably more capable of the spectacular.
Indeed, the now Barcelona star scored seven of his 31 goals that season from outside the box compared to three of 32 from Salah, while the latter scored more goals defined as 'big chances' by Opta (20 to 17).
That said, one key area where the Egypt international outshone the former Liverpool favourite was his conversion rate, with Suarez likely to chance his arm from all manner of distances and angles contributing to his superiority above. In turn, Salah's conversion rate was 22.2 per cent from 4.4 shots per 90, while Suarez's was a modest 17.1 per cent from a monumental 5.5 shots per 90.
That's where Salah's dominance starts and end in truth, however, and while both players showed enviable work rate from the front, it was Suarez once more that came out on top - albeit narrowly - in terms of possession won in the attacking third (31 to 26).
It wasn't so close by way of key passes, however, with Suarez averaging 2.7 per 90 in 2013/14 to Salah's still impressive 1.9 in 2017/18. Moreover, the Uruguayan created an excellent 22 'big chances' to Salah's 12. There was even less of a contest in terms of dribbles too, with the ex-Red averaging twice as many successful take-ons per 90 than the current Liverpool goal-getter (2.8 to 1.4).
All in all, then, it's Luis Suarez whose exploits in the 2013/14 campaign outweighed those of Salah two years ago, evidenced by a WhoScored.com rating of 8.43 to the 27-year-old's score of 7.69.
