Jermaine Pennant, who played for Liverpool under Rafa Benitez from 2006 to 2009, discussed potential replacements for Mohamed Salah, whose contract with Liverpool is set to expire at the end of the season. Salah will be free to negotiate with other clubs from January 1. Pennant compared Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka and Germany’s Leroy Sane as potential successors for Salah on the right side of Liverpool’s attack should Salah depart next summer as a free agent.
Jermaine Pennant said, “I haven’t seen many players do that to Mikel Arteta and Arsenal, and he does it every week in Germany. He knows the Premier League from his time at Manchester City, so for me he would be a great replacement for Salah if he leaves Liverpool. Would he put up the numbers that Salah does? I don’t think so, but then again, who would? It’s difficult with Bukayo Saka. I look at players in his position like Mohamed Salah, who is definitely world class because of the numbers he’s put up over the past seven years at Liverpool. He’s always scoring 20 goals a season and recording double figures in assists too. With Saka, his best goalscoring season so far has been 15 goals, so I think he needs to get up to Salah’s numbers in order to reach that world-class status. I think Saka can achieve that in the future, but for the time being, you can’t give someone a world-class status when there are players in his position recording better statistics. If Saka can put up some slightly higher numbers, then I’d describe him as a world-class player. Would he get into Liverpool’s XI on the right over Salah? I don’t think so, not yet.”
