Liverpool pair Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold have been named in L'Équipe’s World XI for 2021.
By pairing the Reds duo together in their line-up, the French publication, which is responsible for the Ballon d’OR, has demonstrated the world-class quality that Liverpool possess down their right flank.
The team was selected by a combination of L’Equipe’s journalists and online votes, with seven Liverpool players nominated in total.
Alexander-Arnold commanded an impressive 32 per cent of the right-back vote, easily fending off competition from Achraf Hakimi (18%), while Salah earned the most votes of any attacking wide player with 27 per cent.
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Alisson, Virgil van Dijk, Andy Robertson, Fabinho, and Sadio Mane were also nominated for their respective positions.
Though last season was challenging for Jurgen Klopp’s side, Salah still finished the campaign with 22 league goals.
And, this season, both the Egypt forward and Alexander-Arnold have since returned to top form
Arguably the best player in the world, Salah has scored 23 goals in 26 games across all competitions.
Meanwhile, both the forward and right-back Alexander-Arnold are currently tied for the most Premier League assists, with nine.
The right-sided pair are joined in the team by five other Premier League players: Edouard Mendy, Jorginho, and N’golo Kante represent Chelsea; and Ruben Dias and Kevin De Brunye for Manchester City.
PSG’s Marquinhos and Bayern Munich’s Theo Hernandez complete the defence, while another Munich player, Robert Lewandowski, and Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema lead from the front in a 4-4-2 formation.
That means there is no place for Lionel Messi, who started the year at Barcelona before moving to PSG and ended it by being crowned the winner of the Ballon d'Or for a record-breaking seventh time.
Salah, surprisingly, finished seventh.
Even more bizarrely was the recent criticism he received from Garth Crooks, in which the BBC Sport pundit defended his decision to leave the Liverpool forward out of his own team of the year.
“Well, I make no apologies for that. Salah made my team of the season but crudely chased the Golden Boot award,” he said in his Team of the Week column .
“His selfishness had a negative effect on Sadio Mane in particular and, in my view, had an adverse effect on Liverpool's campaign last season - a point I made at the time.
“This season Salah looks like a team player again and his goals are coming naturally. He is no longer looking for cheap penalties and is back to the player he was the season Liverpool won the title, and that's why he makes my team of the week.”
