2016/17 Season Report Card: Sadio Mané

Ok, hands up who expected Sadio Mané to be as great a signing as he’s turned out to be? Not me that’s for sure, I had no idea he was that good. 

I was pleased we signed him and thought he’d be a good addition, but I wasn’t expecting him to immediately play like a frigging superstar and I also felt the fee seemed a little steep. It took just one game for me to change my mind though. 

That goal he scored at Arsenal was one of those moments you never forget. The kind of goal where you just can’t quite believe what you’ve just seen. Let’s revisit it for a second. He picks the ball up on the touchline, miles from goal, and at that moment there is absolutely no way he can score. A couple of seconds later he’s skinned two players, but it doesn’t look like he’ll score as he’s cut back onto his left foot. Next thing the ball is flying into the top corner like an exocet missile. 

It was such a special goal everyone completely lost it, including Klopp who ended up giving Mané a piggy back along the touchline. Mané had been a good player prior to coming here, but in that moment, a star was born in the eyes of Liverpool fans.  

Looking back now, we should have realised his importance to the team when he missed the next game (at Burnley) and we barely even managed a shot in anger without him. With Mané we looked like title contenders but without him we were back to being the team that finished 8th last season. 

That’s partly because of how good he is and partly because we had no like for like replacement when he wasn’t there, meaning the system no longer functioned as well. 

We didn’t realise at the time, but the Burnley game was an ominous sign of things to come as any time Mané wasn’t there it was a real slog. Fortunately right up until the beginning of January he was there, and it’s no co-incidence we went into the New Year in second spot and within touching distance of Chelsea. 

Mané bagged nine goals in 21 games before he departed for the African Cup of Nations and he left a team that was in great shape. Second in the league, in the semi final of the EFL Cup and still in the FA Cup. He came back to a pile of fucking rubble. 

While he was away we took just two points in the league and stunk the place out in the cups. We drew 0-0 at home to Plymouth in the FA Cup and only won the replay 1-0, before losing at home to Wolves in the next round. Most disappointing though was that Southampton beat us 1-0 both home and away in semi final and denied us a Wembley date with the Mancs. 

Everyone was panicking by the time Mané came back, but not even his inclusion in the starting line up could stop the slide as we lost at Hull. It was now full on crisis mode, but Mané bagged a double to see off Spurs and all looked to be well again. Until we then went and lost 3-1 at Leicester. 

January and February had been brutal and cost us a shot at the title as well as any chance of glory in the cups. March wasn’t bad, probably because we only had three games. We won two and drew the other, and it looked like we were back on track again, especially when we walloped Everton on April Fool’s Day. 

Unfortunately, late in that game Mané did his ankle and just like that his season was over. All things considered, we did alright after that. We lost at home to Palace and drew at home with Bournemouth and Southampton, but other than that results were good even if performances were patchy. 

We scraped fourth place in the end, but had Mané been available all season we’d have been pushing Spurs for second. 

Sadio Mané is our most important player and he was undoubtedly our player of the season. Is he our best player? Maybe, although many would still say it’s Coutinho. Mané is more consistent and unlike Coutinho, still makes big contributions on the days when he’s not at his best. 

The key now though is to bring in another couple of forward players of similar ability and style to our star pair, so we can cope whenever either of them aren’t there. Easier said than done, but that’s the only way we’ll be able to compete. 

Best Moment: 

I can’t decide. The goal at the Emirates was the biggest “FUCKING HELL!!! Did that just happen?” moment, but the winner at Goodison was just so funny and will live long in the memory. Both were great, I’m not choosing between them. 
 

Worst Moment: 

The minute he stepped on the plane to go to the African Nations. Honourable mention to the inexplicable handball at Sunderland. 
 

Rating: 

8.5/10 He loses a half point for the time he missed. Harsh perhaps, but Henderson and others were also marked down on that basis so in the interest of equality he’s bumped down from the 9 he would have got otherwise.
 
When he was on it he was virtually unstoppable, and even when he wasn’t on it he would still almost always make some sort of vital contribution, with either a goal, an assist or winning a penalty. I always used to feel that way about John Barnes too. Mané will almost certainly not scale the heights that Digger did, but he’s made a promising start. 
 

The Future? 

He’s our most important player and will continue to be until we add somebody else that can do similar things. He’s perfect for that right wing role in Klopp’s 4-3-3 but I wonder if we may occasionally see him play centre forward next season too?