Sadio Mane

[KMD7]

16 minutes ago, Code said:

Are we actually a bit unfair towards Mane? Are we expecting too much from him?

 

Maybe the 18/19 and 19/20 season, was him playing out and above his normal level. 
 

Looking at the numbers, it suggest that those two seasons were anamolies, and that he’s simply back to his normal level now, when it comes to goalscoring.
 

Sadio Mane Premier League stats: 

2014/15: 24+6 games - 10 goals

2015/16: 30+7 games - 11 goals

————————————————————

2016/17: 26+1 games - 13 goals

2017/18: 28+1 games - 10 goals

2018/19: 35+1 games - 22 goals

2019/20: 31+4 games - 18 goals

2020/21: 27+3 games - 8 goals *

 

Wonder what the goals scored out of percentage of shots taken are this season compared to those earlier seasons though? 

[Joey8FrogsLegs]

Mane is having a bad season, and is now low on confidence. He’s still a brilliant player, and I expect him to be back at his best next season. Key is to get a good preseason and regain full fitness.

[3 Stacks]

If he had loads of years left on his deal it would be a no brainer to back him to bounce back. The problem is that he has 2 years left so either we sell, let him go for free in a couple years or sign him to a new deal into his 30's, which is not an attractive proposition right now because of his terrible form. 

[Barrington Womble]

4 hours ago, Code said:

Are we actually a bit unfair towards Mane? Are we expecting too much from him?

 

Maybe the 18/19 and 19/20 season, was him playing out and above his normal level. 
 

Looking at the numbers, it suggest that those two seasons were anamolies, and that he’s simply back to his normal level now, when it comes to goalscoring.
 

Sadio Mane Premier League stats: 

2014/15: 24+6 games - 10 goals

2015/16: 30+7 games - 11 goals

————————————————————

2016/17: 26+1 games - 13 goals

2017/18: 28+1 games - 10 goals

2018/19: 35+1 games - 22 goals

2019/20: 31+4 games - 18 goals

2020/21: 27+3 games - 8 goals *

 

Nah, he raised his game - he hasn't got 8 goals because he's been on normal form, he's got 8 goals because when he gets near the box, it looks like someone has tied his shoe laces of each boot together. 16/17 we just weren't a good team. 17/18, he took a new role on the left and adjusted his game to provide more defensive cover as we gave Salah such a free role on the right. By 18/19 he'd adjusted to the new role on the left and along with Robbo's improvement, they became an unstoppable combination. If you look at the positions he's got into this season, he's still doing everything right except execution in dangerous areas. I said on another thread, I think when the crowds come back, he'll be sound again. I am concerned about him because this run has gone on so long, but I'm just hoping the confidence the crowd give him will break the cycle. 

[m0e]

5 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

Nah, he raised his game - he hasn't got 8 goals because he's been on normal form, he's got 8 goals because when he gets near the box, it looks like someone has tied his shoe laces of each boot together. 16/17 we just weren't a good team. 17/18, he took a new role on the left and adjusted his game to provide more defensive cover as we gave Salah such a free role on the right. By 18/19 he'd adjusted to the new role on the left and along with Robbo's improvement, they became an unstoppable combination. If you look at the positions he's got into this season, he's still doing everything right except execution in dangerous areas. I said on another thread, I think when the crowds come back, he'll be sound again. I am concerned about him because this run has gone on so long, but I'm just hoping the confidence the crowd give him will break the cycle. 

He also missed a big chunk of one 16/17 with a knee injury. He has a 1 in 2 ratio then and would have been close to 20 had he stayed fit.

[Barrington Womble]

2 minutes ago, m0e said:

He also missed a big chunk of one 16/17 with a knee injury. He has a 1 in 2 ratio then and would have been close to 20 had he stayed fit.

And spent a month at ACN. 

[m0e]

2 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

And spent a month at ACN. 

Yup

[J-V]

2 hours ago, 3 Stacks said:

If he had loads of years left on his deal it would be a no brainer to back him to bounce back. The problem is that he has 2 years left so either we sell, let him go for free in a couple years or sign him to a new deal into his 30's, which is not an attractive proposition right now because of his terrible form. 

Correct he needs to be sold.

[Code]

13 minutes ago, m0e said:

He also missed a big chunk of one 16/17 with a knee injury. He has a 1 in 2 ratio then and would have been close to 20 had he stayed fit.

He played 27 PL games that season and scored 13 goals. 
 

I cant see how you could say he would score 20, his stats would suggest 16-17. 

[Barrington Womble]

11 minutes ago, Code said:

He played 27 PL games that season and scored 13 goals. 
 

I cant see how you could say he would score 20, his stats would suggest 16-17. 

On a 38 fame season, that's a strike rate taking him over 18 goals. It wouldn't seem to unreasonable to assume without the stop/start nature of his season he could well have hit 20. 

[dockers_strike]

From behind the torygraph paywall for free!

 

As Liverpool’s campaign meanders towards an unfulfilling climax, Jurgen Klopp is pinning his hopes on the idea that normal service will resume when key players and fans return. The resuscitation process needs more than a reunion with long-term absentees. Liverpool’s post-Christmas slump is notable for the malfunctioning of those whose Anfield legend is secure, but whose individual form has dipped.

No-one is suffering more than Sadio Mane, who has been unrecognisable from the player who has proven to be one of the most important Liverpool signings of the last 30 years.

How serious are Mane's problems?

The cold data confirms Mane’s dip. The 29-year-old has only eight Premier League goals this season, averaging 0.27 per match. He scored 18 league goals a year ago. Mane’s shooting accuracy is down to 37 per cent (a ten percent drop on 2019/20) and his numbers have decreased in the more contentious ‘expected goals’ metric. Surprisingly, according to Opta’s stats, Mane already has seven more shots than all of last season, supporting Jurgen Klopp’s contention that of all Liverpool’s issues in their failed title defence, creating chances is not one of them.

Mane is currently scoring with only 9.5 percent of his shots, which compares unfavourably with the most prolific marksmen who score between 20-30 percent of their goal attempts.

These numbers support what the naked eye tells us, Mane is lacking his usual composure, either rushing opportunities or hesitating with time and space in the penalty area. Despite that, Mane is averaging more tackles, blocked shots and interceptions this season than last year, reflecting the fact that he and his teammates have had to spend more time compensating for the loss of midfielders and defenders. 

This suggests that his issue is more psychological than physical. There are valid reasons for Mane to re-energise his mind as much as his body before next season.

Why fatigue is his biggest issue

“I don’t think I have had a holiday in seven years,” Mane quipped in August 2019, declaring ‘tiredness is all in the head’. The comments are more relevant two years on. 

Since joining Liverpool five years ago, Mane has scurried along on football’s hamster wheel meeting his domestic and international commitments. That’s before we consider the strains of lockdown life for a player who has committed thousands to the Covid relief effort in his home village in Senegal. Mane’s last two seasons have been especially unrelenting, each blending into the next. 

In the summer of 2019, Mane played the Champions League final on June 1 and then dashed off from the celebrations to prepare for the African Nations Cup, which ran from June 21 to July 19. Senegal reached the final so Mane missed all of Liverpool’s pre-season, rejoining his club four days before their first Premier League game in which he played the last 16 minutes. He would miss only three of his club’s subsequent league and Champions League fixtures. 

The pandemic deprived every player of thorough conditioning for the 2020-21 campaign. That was bound to impact some more than others. Only two Premier League attackers from the ‘big six’ clubs have played more minutes than Mane in the last four seasons — teammate Mohamed Salah and Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling. In that time Mane has played over 1,000 more minutes than Harry Kane and just short of 6,000 more than Sergio Aguero. Fourth on that list, just behind Mane, is Roberto Firmino.

Sterling’s numbers help explain why he has been rested so often by Pep Guardiola this year. Klopp does not have the luxury of having Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez as high-class attacking alternatives, particularly after Diogo Jota’s mid-season injury, and Mane is paying the price.

For all that, Mane's decline is not simply down to him — those around him are not helping. After last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Newcastle, Andy Robertson summed up a recurring Liverpool problem. “We were so good at seeing out games and we can't do that just now,” he said.

Over the previous two years, Liverpool needed only to score first for the match to be under their control and effectively over. Now their forwards play like they know they must score two or three to win. As the chief goal-getters, this is part of the mental baggage Mane and Mohamed Salah are carrying. So to say Liverpool’s biggest recent issue is lack of goals is simplistic twaddle. It is all part of the knock-on effect of losing the defenders and midfielders who brought stability and protection.

Liverpool have become too reliant on Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane Credit: SHUTTERSHOCK

It is not just that Virgil Van Dijk is not around, it is the inability to win the ball back high up the pitch as quickly and as often without Fabinho and Jordan Henderson, and natural caution of Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold to continuously overlap Mane and Salah because they are less certain their forays will be covered.

Every zone of Klopp’s team has become vulnerable under pressure. The longer the season has progressed the more that sense of insecurity has impacted on the once ultra-reliable strikers. 

What are the solutions?

There seems to be an appetite for Klopp and Fenway Sports Group to rip up everything that was good before this abnormal season and rebuild — but that will simply not happen. Whether that’s the wisdom of experience, financial compulsion or blind faith remains to be seen.

Mane, Salah and Firmino will be 29 heading into next season, so there is juggling to be done between short-term devotion and long-term planning. Jota threatens to break-up the established front three. But rather than offload those he loves, Klopp must relieve their burden.

Mane and Firmino’s loss of form has magnified a lack of trust in the understudies, with Divock Origi, Xherdan Shaqiri and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain unable to get into an underperforming front line. Alternatives must be found.

Mane should also benefit from a relatively stress-free summer, which is his first since 2017 with no international tournament. He can book that holiday and rest body and mind.

That, along with the return of injured stars and a vibrant Anfield confirming the last eight months an anomaly, may prove rumours of Mane’s demise greatly exaggerated.

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/04/30/sadio-manes-slump-liverpool-one-key-factor-exhaustion/

[No2]

Thread bumps don't scare the shit out of me anymore. Probably sums up the season.

[Shitty Arse]

It’s my fault. I got my 10 year old nephew a couple of those blag kits off DHgate. Could’ve gone for the easy option and got Salah on the back. But no I went for Mane. The one of our front three I thought we could never do without. The fella that went 4 years or something before losing a home league game at Anfield. Scorer of goals like Bayern away in Champions League.

Been absolute dogshite since I got those kits.

[DalyanPete]

On 09/04/2021 at 21:44, coachpotato said:

No chance to celebrate it properly with the fans, or their families where they come from, people calling their massive success “tainted”, so how would you feel in the same position?

Couldn't agree more, watched some stuff on LFC TV and the joy of scoring, celebrating with the fans, there name being sung. They are as low as you can get now.

[ManéMan]

Part of the problem has been that Robertson has been shite as well the last few months or more.

 

 

[sir roger]

Between us , Scotland and Tsimikas , Robbo has been run into the ground.

[Supremolad]

Well, judging from his words, his poor season is certainly not due to "long covid".

[VladimirIlyich]

On 30/04/2021 at 21:27, ManéMan said:

Part of the problem has been that Robertson has been shite as well the last few months or more.

 

 

Harsh,but with an element of truth to. Robbo has still been brilliant in the first 75% of the pitch from his own goal but his last 25%,in and around the opponents area has been dreadful. He gets into so many excellent positions and does nothing at the end of it and it frustrates me as much as it must do his team-mates.

[aRdja]

I think Sadio’s time with us is coming to an end.

 

 

[Preston Red]

2 minutes ago, aRdja said:

I think Sadio’s time with us is coming to an end.

 

 

Wolfie loved that didn't he. The big shithead sex pest.

[El Rojo]

Jurgen played it down nicely in his interview. Nothing to see here. 

[KMD7]

3 minutes ago, Preston Red said:

Wolfie loved that didn't he. The big shithead sex pest.

As bad as they are I'd rather watch them instead of the two who work at Sky. 

[Numero Veinticinco]

Not good. At all. 

[Redder Lurtz]

I love Sadio but it seems to be all about him, not the team. That's pissed me right off tonight. Stinking behaviour. 

[Preston Red]

Just now, KMD7 said:

As bad as they are I'd rather watch them instead of the two who work at Sky. 

Just the two?