AFCON 2023: Mohamed Salah Could Be Deployed in Unfamiliar Role for Egypt

• Mohamed Salah was on target with a goal and assist for Egypt against Tanzania
• The Egyptian forward played in an unfamiliar position as deployed by his coach
• Rui Vitoria strongly hinted Salah could be tasked with playing away from the wing

Mohamed Salah could find himself in unfamiliar territory at the Africa Cup of Nations as Egypt boss Rui Vitoria hinted at trying out the Liverpool ace in a new role.

The 31-year-old has integrated seamlessly with his national teammates after leaving England and was on the scoresheet in their warm-up game against Tanzania on January 7 at the Cairo Stadium.

Highlights of the Liverpool forward have since emerged from the Tanzania game, and there are hints that Salah, who traditionally plays as a wide forward, could be tasked with the daunting duty of orchestrating attacks from the attacking midfield position.

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Against Tanzania, Salah was deployed in attacking midfield, and to be fair to him, he showed a lot of promise.

Egypt ran out 2-0 winners in the Sunday friendly, with Salah setting up Trezeguet for the opener before bagging a goal from the penalty spot.

His pass to Trezequet for the opener was quite exquisite as it split the defence to allow the Trabzonspor forward to poke the ball home.

What the Egypt coach said

Egypt has been placed in Group B in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, a group that also includes Mozambique, Ghana, and Cape Verde.

After the friendly, Egypt boss, Vitoria, also hinted at giving Salah a more central role since he had several wingers to choose from.

“I think everyone is performing at the highest level because they want to earn their place in the squad but I can only choose 11 players in the end,” Vitoria told Kingfut.

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"Salah playing a central midfield role? It was clear [on Sunday] that he can play that part and he doesn’t necessarily have to play on the wing at all times."

Other wingers in Egypt's squad

Vitoria is not short of talent in the wings, as he has other big names to choose from.

This includes Zamalek winger Zizo, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Omar Marmoush, Mostafa Fathi of Pyramids and Trezeguet, according to Four Four Two.

At Liverpool, the Egyptian ace is typically deployed on the flanks because of his incredible ability to cut in on his left foot.

In the 2023/24 season, Salah has been part of a front three that has consisted of Darwin Nunez as the central striker and either Luis Diaz or Diogo Jota on the left.

This has proven to be the case this season as Salah is the joint top scorer in the league, tied on 14 goals with Manchester City’s Erling Haaland.

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Six favourites to win AFCON

Still on AFCON managers, Algeria coach Djamel Belmadi recently made his pick for the 6 favourites to win the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

As Sports Brief reported, Belmadi excluded his team, saying they were still recovering from the heartbreak of not qualifying for the 2022 World Cup.

According to the Algeria coach, hosts Ivory Coast remained the team to beat in this year’s edition.