Yeah but as a Liverpool fan you'll be biased, you can't be objective about this like United fans can be.
Prime Bale or Prime Salah?
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Yeah but as a Liverpool fan you'll be biased, you can't be objective about this like United fans can be.
I think this is more about Salah's personal stats vs Bale's titles won.
Salah has much more better personal stats but Bale has won more titles & in many of them he was a clutch player to many.
It really depends on which one is regarded as a players prime by the individual.
Salah's goalscoring & assist stats absolutely destroys Bale's personal statistically but so does Bale destroy Salah in titles won.
5 Champions Leagues, 4 Club World Cups, 3 European Super Cups, 3 LaLiga titles, 1 Copa del Rey and 3 Spanish Super Cups.
Vs
Salah has much more better personal stats but Bale has won more titles & in many of them he was a clutch player to many.
It really depends on which one is regarded as a players prime by the individual.
Salah's goalscoring & assist stats absolutely destroys Bale's personal statistically but so does Bale destroy Salah in titles won.
5 Champions Leagues, 4 Club World Cups, 3 European Super Cups, 3 LaLiga titles, 1 Copa del Rey and 3 Spanish Super Cups.
Vs
1x Champions League winner, 1 x PL, 1 Uefa Super Cups, 1 FA Cup, 3 Carabao cups
If I wanted to maximise output? Salah. If I wanted pure entertainment and freak credentials, Bale. Bale just did some absolutely nuts stuff and made it look casual. Salah is just a machine albeit not as entertaining.
Its vaguely similar to the Messi vs Ronaldo albeit both of those were absolute goal machines in their prime. Do you want efficiency or flair?
Its vaguely similar to the Messi vs Ronaldo albeit both of those were absolute goal machines in their prime. Do you want efficiency or flair?
Yeah one of the differences for me is that, as his career at Real progressed, Bale often struggled to impact games when the opposition were sat in. Most of his best work was in space when he could shift into top gear, particularly on the counter. And that game dynamic was probably more common internationally for Wales, or in the Champions League against better opposition when Spurs or Real were doing contain-and-counter, or later on in games.
Salah is different as he could do a lot of great work in tight spaces in the opposition penalty box.
Salah won 3 Carabao cups ?
Bale, any day of the week.
Liverpool is not his first English club.
Bale
But it is a bit of a prime Ronaldo scenario.
But it is a bit of a prime Ronaldo scenario.
him being at Spurs actually benefited his numbers. as soon as he went to Madrid it meant way less freedom, less shooting at will, less free kicks, less penalties. you simply aren't playing that way with CR next to you.
but he started providing for others again, something he lost in his final year with Spurs.
which is also a big difference between the two. Salah won't finish the season with 2 assists only just because he's more focused on goals.
When Salah can score such an important bicycle kick goal in the Champions League Final like Bale did, then we’ll talk.
What kind of fiction in this? Bale’s free kicks, long range shooting and heading were all world class. He was clearly better than Salah at these qualities.pretty much this
The thing about Bale is he had more big wow moments across his career than Salah. He has 3 goals in CL finals, including a freaking overhead kick. And he outperformed Salah at international level
Bale was a better ball carrier from deep, and that made him better at generating attack for his teams than Salah, who only comes alive in the last 30 meters. Other than that, Salah pretty clearly has Bale beat in just about every way you can think of
I think prime for prime they are pretty even but might give the edge to Bale because he did more with a worse international team. Bale was superman for Wales at times with how he carried them. Salah has been good for Egypt but never really been the Liverpool peak version there.
Salah was far more consistent. Bale had a great highlights reel, but in terms of impacting week to week, Salah is much more reliable. Bale lost his spot in the Real Madrid team and the fans were eventually sick of him, I know it's Madrid with the most fickle fans ever but I just couldn't have seen that happening to Salah in the same role because of his consistency.
The question is peak so that benefits Bale and he was better for Wales than Salah has been for Egypt too, but I would still go for Salah.
The question is peak so that benefits Bale and he was better for Wales than Salah has been for Egypt too, but I would still go for Salah.
Over a full season - Salah.
In a CL Final - Bale.
In a CL Final - Bale.
Right, but that is not a fair comparison because the same situation would need to be available to both players.
I disagree. I remember Bale tearing every man and his dogs to shreds on the left wing. A proper old school winger, exciting and electric. I'd have chopped off my little finger for us to sign him as a Giggs replacement around about 2011.
I think of it like this.... When Bale would receive the ball, wide, on the half way line i would be excited, every single time in anticipation for what might happen. Not once have i felt that when Salah is in the same situation.
I don't know what it is about Salah, like, he never seems in control of the ball and he has a weird way of striking the ball, almost like he miss hits it.... Obviously not the case but its awkward on the eye for me, much like Lampard..... always looked like he mis hit his shots.
Bale won the PFA player of the year and writers player of the year award in his final year in the premier league. Not Suarez.
4th but scored 84 goals. The main issue was defence. We scored 66 in Bales final season and he was responsible for a ridiculous portion of them.
There's a reason 'that' Bale season prompted Madrid to pay a record fee. A thunderstrike or some various form of wonder goal every week in a team with zero creativity or spark wasn't normal. It's not something I'm remotely convinced Salah could do under the same circumstances.
I struggle a lot with this. Feels like a player being awfully misremembered. Bale at us played multiple positions (LB, more traditional left midfielder, centre forward, ten, right winger) because he was very not one dimensional. And he was very much not a stats merchant, he didn't rely on set pieces, didn't score many scrappy or 'simple' goals, played very deep compared to how Salah has spent most of his career. The difference in what he did to Maicon vs Inter and what he then years later was under AVB is stark.
Bale had many incarnations though. He was a proper old school winger around 2010 and I agree it was my favourite version of Bale. Just rinsing a full-back and putting in a cross on his favoured side, or shooting from an angle.
But already by 2012 or 2013 he had moved centrally and tried to be a Ronaldo clone, then within a year or two of Real Madrid he bulked up considerably and became a different kind of player, still very good but was not an old school winger at all, more like a striker. Considering at the start of his career he was a full-back, he was only that proper old school winger for a small portion of his career.
Exactly. Many players have a purple patch season where they cant follow up. E.g Michu
No. Every member of MSN was better than him and at Madrid for several seasons he was not a starter
Prime Bale. Freak of nature match winner.
Salah is also lucky to be the main man in the team, his stats would be lower playing next to Ronaldo.
Salah is also lucky to be the main man in the team, his stats would be lower playing next to Ronaldo.
That's a bold statement. What's Bale's prime, 2013 - 2018? I'm not even sure I'd have him in my top 3 Real Madrid players at that time. Modric, Kroos, Marcelo, Ramos are very fierce competition, let alone Hazard, Neymar, Suarez, Iniesta, Robben, Ribery, Ibrahimovic, Griezmann and Aguero.
Bale's highest Ballon D'Or finish was 6th by the way.
People are downplaying Salah's close control, efficiency in front of goal and general hold-up play....his game IQ is unbelievable, he's way more than just a finisher. He won't rocket it in like Bale (Chelsea goal excepting), but will happily turn 3 or 4 defenders in knots then ping it into the far top corner. He almost suffers from being so consistently good...people forget how he tore through teams that first season!
It's like having a 'Prime Rooney vs Prime Drogba' conversation. Drogba was unbelievable and is probably the striker you want in a cup final, but Rooney was just better by pretty much every metric.
It's like having a 'Prime Rooney vs Prime Drogba' conversation. Drogba was unbelievable and is probably the striker you want in a cup final, but Rooney was just better by pretty much every metric.
Reus was better than him during that period.
Yeah, while Salah finished 5th twice and 6th, even without CL final goals.
It was available. Teams could have still broken the bank for Salah after his best season. This is the same sport in which a Zidane was getting world record moves to Real Madrid as old as 29. Fact is its because Bale's season was nigh an anomaly that he sparked such. Salah had a fantastic best season. But just wasn't as outrageous as Bale's best season was.
For me Bale's top most level was higher than Salah's ever reached. But he hardly stayed there. Fluctuating constantly between very high and very low levels. Salah in comparison has not been far off his best ever level since he started performing to a top echelon standard, consistently.
17/18 Salah was better than any version of Bale,but Bale has the better trophy haul.
I'd say bale has the better big game record moments collection or whatever you'd like to call it, was great in two cl finals and had that amazing goal in a Copa del ray final, much better than what Salah has.
Otherwise it's the Egyptian who come out on top in most regards.
Otherwise it's the Egyptian who come out on top in most regards.
17/18 Salah was obviously better than any version of Bale,the quality and number of goals in the prem and ucl prove it,and he was better at dribbling and linking up play.Bale was better in the air and possibly faster,but nothing else.
Apart from some cr7 madrid seasons,messi at barca and peak suarez,17/18 Salah is the best individual season of any player.
They bought Bale because he was only at spurs,so it was very easy to convince him to move.It would have cost far more to get hold of salah,because he was at lfc,they had klopp and they had just reached a ucl final.You cannot use transfers as a reliable way to gauge a players quality.
Wait, so "if he was as good as Bale, why didn't Madrid break the transfer record for him" was an actual argument?
Which teams who could afford him, needed a right attacking player?
Bale without a doubt. It's not even close for me.
yes. Coutinho, Dembele and Grealish became better than both Salah and Bale once the clubs decided to pay higher fees for them. Antony and N. Pepe close behind.
Bale is so insanely overrated only among those who prioritise G/A or Hollywood moments over everything else’s. He’s one of those players who is never great than the sum of his stats as the rest of his game was sub par compared to top players. That’s why, while he had terrific spells there and big moments, he also frequently stuck out like a sore thumb at Madrid as his technical game was a step below.
Most wide players play centrally at some point. It’s not that big a deal. Bale certainly didn’t have a great record as left back.
Generally dropping deep is valuable when your general play is of the standard of a Rooney or Suarez not Bale.
Salah's Puskas Goal is the most overrated thing i have ever seen.
Bale was to Madrid what Ole was for United whilst also having Cole, Yorke, Sheringham - a clutch player in a group of great forwards.
I wouldnt call him overrated and i think he is rated fine and personally a level above Neymar.
Salah is not a clutch player however :
Mo Salah has 0 non penalty goals in 14 finals
However his stats are very good and consistent throughout a season.
Do you go for the guy who is consistent but kind of like Kane in a final? Or care for a more clutch player? Again its whats regarded as more important - Trophies vs Personal stats.
Bale was to Madrid what Ole was for United whilst also having Cole, Yorke, Sheringham - a clutch player in a group of great forwards.
I wouldnt call him overrated and i think he is rated fine and personally a level above Neymar.
Salah is not a clutch player however :
Mo Salah has 0 non penalty goals in 14 finals
However his stats are very good and consistent throughout a season.
Do you go for the guy who is consistent but kind of like Kane in a final? Or care for a more clutch player? Again its whats regarded as more important - Trophies vs Personal stats.
But the clutch player is relying on his teammates to get them to that final. Having someone who pops up in a final doesn't happen without players like Salah.
Well semi finals dont really win you anything except a ticket to a final.
A bit like how Haaland goes missing in big games aswell. Great stats but sometimes can be quite quiet when most needed to get over a crossline.
As said before by many people, win a season then Salah, win a cup then Bale. However, even then Salah for all his jaw dropping stats has only won the league once.
Prime Bale as LWB/LM in Amorim's 343 sounds very tasty.
Yea but bale won nothing with spurs. It's easy to win when you play for the best team in the world without you.