Either on the bench or out of the match day squad, that is where Egypt's international player Mohamed Salah has spent his time since moving to Chelsea F.C. in the last transfer window. The former Basel winger has joined the Blues carrying high speculations from the fans in his home country and his new team. Salah is known to Chelsea fans as the player who scored three times in their net in the European tournaments. Salah is a fast-paced, skilled lethal player who was the star of his former team. Despite so, he has not been able to find a way to get into the starting squad in London. English website The Pride of London headlined an article with the question: “Where is Mohamed Salah?” The website highlighted Salah's coach Jose Mourinho's rationale on why Salah is not playing. Mourinho has said that Salah will start impacting the squad next season when he settles in the Premier League and adapts to its style of play. Despite describing Salah as a “raw and unfinished player” unlike Nemanja Matic, the player Chelsea bought in the same transfer window who made it directly to the starting squad, the website still criticised the decision, saying Salah could at least have been given more minutes of play. “Mohamed Salah – Chelsea's wasted genius?” is another question that headlined an article in the British website Football. The article also shed light on Salah's lack of playtime describing him as part of Chelsea's future plan. The British website predicted that Salah will play an important role with the team next season or else he might go on loan like other Chelsea talents, giving examples of Marko Marin and Victor Moses. The article said at the end that “Jose (Mourinho) must not waste the genius that is Mohamed Salah.” Is Salah being wasted? There is a danger of him losing his form and thus rusting his talent. Yet, it is also true that Salah is still a raw and unfinished player as described and that moving to a team like Chelsea at his young age of twenty-one is an advantage. The player has never played on this level of football and to be able to carry a heavy shirt like Chelsea's requires a special personality, which is what is being built with Mourinho. The Portuguese coach has found in Salah the talent he needs for his team, but Salah has to acquire the mentality needed to play for a team that is competing for the Premier League and Champions League. How different is that from playing for the Arab Contractors in Egypt and Basel in Switzerland? Not only that, but Salah also needs to build his body and muscles and adapt to the aggressive and physical style of play in the Premier League. In Chelsea's match against Manchester City in the FA Cup in which Chelsea lost and got knocked out, Salah played the whole second half. In 45 minutes of play, Salah did not display any aggression on the ball and even seemed apprehensive of Man City's tackles. Against Arsenal in the Premier League, in which Salah played for about 25 minutes, the Egyptian played well and even scored. The difference between both matches is that in the first against Man City, Salah could not handle the strong tackles and aggressive style of play, which is the trademark of English teams. Arsenal is an English team with a Spanish flavour if could be said. The London rivals do not play aggressive football like the rest of the English teams, depending instead on skillful, talented players rather than on strong ones. Furthermore, unlike Man City's match, Arsenal was down 5-0 when Salah entered the pitch. In the Man City match, Salah came in for Samuel Eto' at the start of the second half with his team down 1-0 and carrying the pressure of fixing the situation. Not a good situation for a young new player. However, with a lead of 5-0 against Arsenal and with Arsenal playing with 10 players after Kieran Gibbs was sent off in the first half, Salah felt no pressure on his shoulders. Arsène Wenger, Arsenal's coach, made the mistake of playing a high defence game with lots of spaces behind the defence that could be used perfectly by a very fast player, which Mourinho capitalised on. With all the conditions ripe for him to shine, was there a better opportunity for Mourinho to give Salah the chance to look good in front of his Stamford Bridge fans? In Arsenal's game, Mourinho played Salah against Man City in a very complicated match, which made the winger look bad. Therefore, no one should expect that Salah will suddenly become a regular in Chelsea's starting line-up after scoring in Wenger's team. Salah still needs time to adapt to the new atmosphere and the level of football he is supposed to play. Playing him when he is not ready could result in burning him as a player and could affect his career in the future. Meanwhile, Salah needs to make the most of his few minutes on the pitch and keep learning from his coach, because few players are fortunate enough to be trained by “The Special One.” Diamond cutting is the art of changing a diamond from a rough stone into a faceted gem, which is apparently what Mourinho is planning on doing with Salah. If played right and with his potential, Salah could possibly become the future of Chelsea and one of the best players in the world.
