In the Premier League this season, Jack Grealish was given 167 fouls by referees.
Mo Salah was given just 18.
This is the headline stat shared on Twitter by Simon Brundish – and it hurts our head just thinking about it.
The Egyptian had the most touches inside the box and only eight players had a higher dribble success rate than our no.11, yet he is ranked 153rd in the most fouled list.
We’d suggest that’s basically a statistical impossibility. It’s an anomaly of the wildest proportions.
Salah has a reputation. He has a reputation of being someone who doesn’t assist his team-mates, despite having more Premier League assists than both Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino this season just gone.
He also has a reputation of going down too easily, despite the fact he bullishly stays on his feet until the point a chance is often gone – instead of going down and getting a penalty. Probably because he never gets them anyway.
Manchester United got 14 penalties in the Premier League this season – the most of all time. Liverpool got five, despite having a plethora more touches in the penalty area than our rivals.
For us, there is a clear (conscious or unconscious) bias against Salah. Why? We don’t know – but we remember a long report by Paul Tomkins about English players getting fouls much more than foreigners in the Premier League.
Grealish got 167. Salah got 18.
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