It is a compliment that is also a cage.
Every generation of African football produces a winger described as unplayable. Drogba was unplayable. Mané was unplayable. Salah was unplayable. The label sticks until the player turns 28 and the press needs a new framework.
The problem with the label is what it does not say. It does not say tactically intelligent. It does not say creative. It does not say capable of dictating play. It does not say capable of operating in central areas. The label confines the player to one dimension of the game, the one that involves running fast at defenders.
This is fine for a while. It is less fine when the player ages, slows down, and is no longer unplayable in the way the label expected. At that point, the player is supposed to disappear, because the framework that elevated him does not contain a category for what he becomes next.
Look at how the press handled Drogba's late career. Look at how it handled Eto'o. Look at how it is currently handling Mané. The pattern is the same. The unplayable phase is brief. The post-unplayable phase is dismissed.
A more intelligent vocabulary would have allowed these players to age into the roles they actually deserved. They were not just fast. They were footballers. The press took twenty years to figure that out, and only for the ones who lasted long enough to force the issue.