“Fair comparison” – Liverpool Salah-replacement idea mirrors Egyptian’s style

Juventus’ Francisco Conceicao has been linked with a move to Liverpool over the past two weeks. With the Reds seeing the Portuguese attacker as a replacement for Mohamed Salah, Luciano Spalletti has spoken about the comparisons.

The Portugal international is into his second season at the Italian giants, having spent the previous season on an initial loan from FC Porto. Juventus then paid €30m to rope him in permanently and the deal is paying some rewards now.

The 23-year-old featured for the Old Lady against Genoa yesterday, playing over 80 minutes in a 2-0 win. He also assisted for the Bianconeri, having done the same in the previous game against Sassuolo during the 1-1 draw in Turin.

Sport Witness have covered how Liverpool have already made first contact for the winger, who has also spoken about the links. He appears happy at Juve and remains focused on the last few games of the campaign.

Interestingly, Juve boss Spalletti compared Conceicao to Salah right after he assisted against Genoa.

Conceicao and Salah are similar players

The Italian made it clear that Conceicao has grown in stature in the last few months, even if he has some way to go to become the best version of himself.

He said – relayed by TuttoSport: “It’s a fair comparison because Francisco is a young player and still has a lot to learn, as well as convincing himself that he can play on the pitch. Having him behind him shouldn’t make him feel the anxiety he clearly has, because if he receives the ball on the outside and looks at you, he becomes un-markable; he’s truly strong.”

Spalletti was quite detailed and pointed out potential improvements for the Liverpool target.

“It’s also clear that in seven or eight situations, he creates several threats, but he needs to improve his decision-making. Even when he goes head-down to play one-on-one, he needs to have some perspective, that is, see who I can pass the ball to. For now, he does one thing at a time: either he faces the man or passes to his teammate.”

While directly addressing how he is similar to Salah, Spalletti also praised the Liverpool star.

“His qualities as a wide striker make him one of the strongest I’ve seen, but he needs to improve his shooting because Salah is at the top level in that regard. He has this intensity and ferocity in one-on-one situations that always creates so many threats.”

Our take: Conceicao has a long way to go

In a sense, Spalletti is quite accurate with his assessment of the Juventus winger. His decision-making in the final third is fairly inconsistent. This often hampers his numbers, as the Portuguese has contributed to only eight goals in all competitions this season.

He has an impressive workrate though and that is why he is plays quite regularly. He also has decent 1v1 ability and defenders can’t dominate him, despite his small frame.

Those are factors that Liverpool will have to know, especially if they launch a formal move. Salah was much more complete on and off the ball when he arrived at Anfield, impressing consistently at Fiorentina and Roma.

Conceicao is still only 23 and might need another season to prove that he has one more big step-up in his career.