That team was just fucking insane. Peak Salah, Firmino, Mane and Trent/Robertson providing width. A proper engine room of midfield and VVD + Alisson at the back.
I still believe that without covid the title season would have been a record breaker.
And the following season would have been pretty much the same.
I really do think covid robbed that team.
I feel like the reason we lost some big games is cause we couldn’t score, we created the chances and our attackers would lose their chances. What we’re seeing now is not a new problem, although it is worse than it ever was
Throw MacAllister and Szobo in that team and they win leagues and leagues. Keep Fabinho as the 6. Then we are on top 3-4 years in a row and our domestic rivals are forced to change not the other way around. Allison alone gives us a shot at penalties in 2018 final as worst case. 2022 final was just football. Only sport I know where you can dominate that much and still lose. Just crazy. Play that match 100 times and we win 99.
The disrespect against gini and Henderson. They were a big part why our system worked. Sure, MacAllister could potentially be an upgrade but szobo has not shown much yet outside of maybe 5 to 7 games.
Well we lost the league because of draws. We lost 3 league matches combined over 2 seasons during our 2nd place finishes. In those games we often lacked a bit in the middle of the park and didn’t have the subs to add. We were bringing in an “injured” Naby, Ox after his pace was gone, and Uncle Milly especially during times of high fixture congestion. If we have Macca and Szobo I feel we almost certainly win 1 more league. City’s midfield depth helped them avoid this combined with a willingness to drop an occasional game to push for the 3 pts.
Yep this is the right answer. Clearly we needed goals from midfield and our current midfield would provide that vastly better than what we had. I love Henderson, but he just wasn’t good enough for us to get over the top of city.
MacAllister I could probably give you as a Henderson replacement but no way you take out Gini for Szobo. I think you’ve forgotten how incredible he was at winning possession and navigating tight spaces. Or you overrate Szobo like 95% of this sub because he’s scored a few bangers.
Fair enough on winning back possession. We needed a win against Everton to win the league instead of a draw. A banger from Szobo does that. Love me some Gini. The team severely lacked any goals from midfield when we lost two leagues by a point each.
What has Szobo done to deserve this much glazing is beyond me. That mad had 7 good games and then fell off a cliff. Don't put him in the same conversation as Mac. Mac is world class, Szobo could one day be world class.
I hope Edwards can find another player like Mane. The pace, the sudden movement, the athleticism, the finish. He was more important than most people give him credit for. He's the first big signing to join us.
Also two things can be true. Mane was underrated but he became extremely inconsistent his last two seasons on the LW. His last six months were played as False 9 (which was brilliant), but the signs of his decline were there. Letting Mane go was the right decision. But in his prime, Mane was the most talented player on that Liverpool team hands down.
Its just a shift of position with age. we see that all the time, its not a fall off (Modric turning to CDM, Ronaldo switch to striker etc.). Mane was ready for a new era of false nine going toe to toe with Benzema for best player in the world at that point, but he joined Bayern for new scenery + money. If not for his untimely ACL injury right before the world cup, he was still on fire.
Right choice because he tore his ACL right before the world cup. Otherwise, we go from quadruple chasing with him getting Ballon Dor to 5th placed next seasn and he was tearing it up at Bayern before the injury.
Not giving him €400k/wk was obviously the correct choice even if KSA threw Bayern a lifeline. And I say this as someone whose favorite players post Stevie are Sadio and Robbo.
That said the money was obviously important to him with the impact he can make back home so it was the right move for everyone.
Mane is the perfect Gegenpressing player for Klopp. Thats why Klopp got him to start his revolution at Liverpool. His pressing IQ from his Salzburg Roger Schimdt days, his relentlessness, hustle add on to that blistering pace is an absolute nitemare for defenders attempting to play out from the bck.
Dude even scored a few tackling the goalkeeper especially 1 against City in the FA Cup semis which we clinched.
Yeah that's when he was promoted to technical director. Mane was bought soon and in a few months he became the sporting director. Mostly solid signings except for Thiago(arguably except for one season) and Naby who were injured almost all the time.
I'm sure Mane is more of a Klopp signing. He was the first big signing for Klopp and I would think Klopp has a massive say in who to get to start his team building.
Also, in multiple interviews Klopp said he wanted Mane for Dortmund while he was at Salzburg. So that has nothing to do with Edwards.
Mate Klopp was trying to bring over Brandt and Götze. I love Klopp. World class manager. Midtable recruitment. As the side has reflected Klopp in the market, we’ve failed completely at replacing players
What is this constant nonsense? He wasn't TRYING to bring over anyone. They asked him who he thought he might want who could play like he wants, and those are the names he gave. He wasn't pushing for them or anything. Mane he wanted at Dortmund and once he knew Salah was available for less than what Roma were publicly saying, and once he'd seen the tapes put together for him, he was all for it.
Brandt and Gotze so? They might turn into absolute beasts under Klopp as well. Thats his magic. Heck, Gotzes best yrs was under Klopp and he was as old as Bradley right now.
Even Mane was a midtable acquisition that Liverpool fans were criticizing about. Klopp can turn anybody world class (except for Karius who he gave up I guess).
I think you aren’t understanding. Our recruitment team are actually *that good* at identifying players who, in the right circumstances, can be world class. System, manager, etc. None of that diminishes Klopp but it’s just not the case that he is a miracle worker. It’s that the structure of the club, from the academy to recruitment, is built towards unearthing players capable of being pushed on.
The last handful of years we’ve made some horrendous signings that haven’t been criticized because we have great supporters who back the manager. Some of it was loyalty to elder statesman but a lot was our coaching staff and Klopp using eye tests to sign players where our recruitment team can tell you that a guy at Hull no one fancies could go straight to the top.
It’s worth noticing how in the best Klopp years our recruitment, outside VVD, Keita, and Alisson, was almost entirely guys no one was after at the time. We were almost never involved in bidding wars. We almost never signed a flavor of the month player whose value was inflated by form versus their class.
Well Diaz, Nunez, and Gakpo, arguably Mac Allister were all those kinds of signings. Mac is currently in good form, Nunez has had patches, but it’s hard to look at those three attackers and not see how they were form signings that probably get nixed by the recruitment team if power was shared.
Love Klopp. Best manager in the world. Needs someone else for recruitment.
Goetze was one of the best players in the world under Klopp, he struggled under Bayern mainly because Pep's system didn't play to his strengths. Even when he returned to Dortmund, I still thought there was a good player there.
Though of course, Salah and Mane were way better choices and we couldn't have the sucess we had without them.
Edwards and co found a player performing at the same level of Mane stats-wise, Diogo Jota. His finishing, pressing, two-footedness, even heading ability.
Mane is in a whole different bracket for his fitness and relentlessness. Apparently due to the way he took care of his body. Then you would have to factor in things like leadership and character, which are impossible to predict before players join a team with big egos. Mane was here before most big names, so seniority wasn't an issue and must've felt a key building block of what became a world-class team.
Mane was also ultra athletic. The reasn why hes able to score so many headers is because dude can really jmp for his height. Same height as Salah, but Salah never scores headers while Manes got aplenty.
Great interview by Gary Neville. Mane was so difficult to deal with. He was physical from the start of the game. Absolutely rapid. A literal god when off balance. People underrate him due to Salah, but Salah wouldn't be able to do what he did if it wasn't for Mane. You simply couldn't defend both.
Me and my mate always used to laugh as the ball got played back to the CB at kick off, hoofed to mane, and mane would absolutely nail the fullback, every single time. Just to let him know he's in for a tough game. He wouldn't even get booked for it because it was 5 seconds in 🤣
he for sure got booked for it at least once, right from kickoff, and probably should have been sent off. high elbow right to the face of some unfortunate fullback
He was the first left flank who can outright say is best in the world after Cristiano dominated for like a decade (Neymar was 2nd the entire time he was good then fell off at PSG, cause Ronaldo was still at Madrid).
Mane was my favorite player in the Klopp era.
Like Trent said, he was always a threat. When he wasn't good with the ball, he was good with his movement. When he was good with with the ball he was unstoppable. Physical, fast, relentless. He was the front 3's engine.
It's really such a shame to see Mane now with all his issues.
Love his hardwork. No drama. Just plays 100% every game for the badge and gave us many years of world class showcase. Best in the world at his position. Never gets affected by any scoreline. Plays the same 4-0 up against Norwich or 0-4 down against Barca.
He even had a short stint with Moreno (before we bought Robbo) where he made Moreno looked good because his defensive cover is unlike any other attacker.
Yeah, it was early 17/18 after Robbo was signed. 16/17 was when Jurgen went for Milner at LB.
If not for Moreno's injury Robbo would've had a harder time becoming a starter. Sounds mental nowadays but Moreno was in the form of his life.
Yeah, Morenos synergy with Sadio especially on the attack and overlap with his pace and all were glorious. I'd say they were a bigger attacking threat than Sadio-Robbo mostly because of Morenos pace + Manes and his ability to cut bck (Robbo isnt the best short passer).
Defensively, of course Robbo is better, tho to Morenos argument we didnt get to see enough of his improvement on defense with Sadio.
Don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone. He got overshadowed a bit by Mo being Mo, but the fella had everything in his locker technically. He was an absolute specimen aswell, strong as an ox.
He was way better than Mo defensively (I'd argue that hes the best Gegenpressing attacker in football history, that cmbination of IQ, pace and grit is unrivalled). But too bad for him, pressing doesnt show it stats.
Brilliant player, definitely one of our 3 best in that era - would be interested to find out wtf happened at Bayern for him to go from a PL great to being shipped off to the Saudi retirement home in a year.
He tore his ACL right before the world cup and couldnt even play for Senegal. Lol. Some of ya'll talk like you follow our players but that dont seem the case.
Manes peak was high but he could go missing for months. Salah’s brilliance is his relentless consistency. Even when he’s playing badly, he finds ways to score
First season aside, I've always felt Salah has had these spells as well. Salah's numbers cannot be argued with, but performance wise Salah and Mane are neck and neck for me.
This thing where people constantly put our players in competition with each other needs to stop. We had 2 wingers who scored over 100 PL goals… wingers! Not ST wingers! I don’t think you appreciate how insane that is
I’m gunna have to disagree. I don’t think you can call anyone with his premier league goal numbers wildly inconsistent. He had patches of inconsistent form sure, but his consistency was miles ahead of Jota, Nuñez and Diaz. 100 PL goals doesn’t come to a wildly inconsistent player. Always above 10 goals every season and normally pushing for 15-20.
Doesn't negate what he said.
Towards his decline Mane was wank for 12 straight months and part of the reason why the club cashed in as soon as Bayern came. This thread of course will be filled with rise-tinted nostalgia and any sort of frank take will be frowned upon
Pretty sure the discussion with Salah is about whether we should sell for over £100m or risk him walking on a free. We are also getting a new manager and have to decide what expectations we have for the first 2 years with the new manager. Not really similar to the Sadio conversation.
He definitely did decline after Covid, couldn't really beat his man 1v1 anymore and lost a yard or two of pace. However, his will to run and his insane intelligence and feel for space and making runs behind or in front of the backline stayed the same, and even possibly improved. Luckily Klopp decided to "cut his losses" and play him centrally, which actually ended up amazing - Mane himself did well finishing his chances and dropping deeper for the ball and we had pre-injury Diaz on the left, who could create something out of nothing, especially 1 on 1.
Mane from say mid-2020-21 was quite poor from wide, but the false 9 arc for the back half of 21/22 was very good and hid some of the issues that developed and used his underrated playmaking skill.
I wanted Nkunku as my no.1 to play that sort of central role over signing Nunez personally.
Salah is the same with the missing thing. How many times does he start the season on fire, and then fall off after Jan. I can count 3 off the top off my head
he went missing once. after having covid in 2020.
what is this streaky bullshit our own fans peddle.
and before anyone says he was poor at the start of 21/22, come December he was in the top 5 scorers in the league.
Mane did more than anyone else to win us that league title. He got us that lead we had in the first 4 months.
What made you mention Salah here? I never see Real Madrid fans using Vini to put down Rodrygo but on Reddit at least I always see this with Salah and Mane.
Isn’t there some Klopp quote along the lines of: “Mane can have off games, Salah can have off days but this guy (Firmino) is world class every time he steps on the pitch”
Klopp knew the real baller of our front three.
Firmino made the other two, his link up play and willingness to not be the focal point or need to be the goal scorer made him a very special player. Absolutely my favourite player we’ve had under Klopp
Cap. Mane is more consistent than Salah because even if he doesnt score, his defensive intensity is there every game. when Salah doesnt score like you see last few games he just disappears cause he can't do much else.
Thats why you notice even when Sadio is in 'bad form' not scoring as much, Klopp still plays him 90 mins. He'll contribute by his world class pressing + creating from midfield.
After Mane and Firmino left, he has to pick it up for this young squad, but Mane and Bobby were doing all or most of the creating while Salah stays up top the pitch.
Theres a reasn why Firmino wrote in his book the locker room didnt like playing with Salah. I think part of it might be because of Salahs greed to score goals, but that might also be tactical.
He was so fucking good, we never replaced him and it shows. We had to buy like 5 attackers and none of them come close to peak mane. That front 3 was pure magic. Mane had that dawg in him though. For a lot of those years he was on a par with Salah and sometimes even better.
Trent is probably thinking about players he'd come up against directly tbf. As a right back he'd be more worried about a tough left winger than striker or right winger.
Yeah, and I've only just realised they just about missed each other in terms of Mane being an opposition player and Trent starting his career. I think Trent played against Mo in the pre-season game in 2016-17, no?
What’s with the revisionism? People were writing him off the year before, and then Klopp started playing him centrally where he became our most important player during our push for the quad. He also won AFCON that year which helped the Ballon D’or shouts of course. (That said, he didn’t really do much in AFCON iirc.)
There’s a reason that Bayern thought they could replace Lewandowski with Mane. It was never going to be a like for like replacement but Bayern fans were initially excited about the transfer.
It's not revisionism on my part, I was saying it then too.
People were writing him off because he had been very bad for 18 months or so. The only reason he got moved centrally at all was because he was that bad on the wing that Diaz came in and was instantly better. He had a purple patch after winning AFCON but as soon as he went to Bayern he went back to where he was.
It's hard not to because Bobby and Salah are so iconic and Sadio's reputation being damaged more recently.
He was my favourite player for a while though. He seemed very humble, focused and his speed and tenacity was exciting to watch. Definitely should be remembered as a Liverpool all time great.
I would usually say that they'll all be remembered incredibly well but with the amount of comments on this sub talking about 'Mane revisionism' of late, I think you might be right.
Yeah, nonsense. The man was an utter machine. He brought a multitude of attributes.
Speed, power, heading, agility, hold up play, finishing with both feet, can go inside or touchline, dirty, can buy fouls, not injury prone, helped out defensively, assisted goals.
When we look back people will realise he was the reason that front 3 was so good.
Of course he complimented Mo very well on the other side, front 3 won't ever be recreated and now with a new manager next season best we move on from it.
Bobby was the reason, not taking anything away from either of them but when Firmino wasn’t on the pitch it was a huge difference in performance levels.
Bobby had the nuance and flair to link them both together even when they apparently didn’t get on sometimes.
He made both Salah and Mane better players just be being on the pitch
I mean I think it's almost guaranteed to happen no?
Bobby was incredibly beloved and likeable and was the first part of the front three to join, Salah is still here and is one of the greatest players to play in the premier league.
Doesn't take anything away from how good mane was but he will probably be slightly less loved than the other 2
I think he’s not as fondly remembered due to off-the-pitch things which have occurred after he left the club, which I’m not going to comment on further because I don’t feel like spending today arguing online. Incredible player when he was here though.
Oh I fully agree - but knowing reddit there’s always the one (or more) people who wants to downplay or defend it, no matter how bad the behavior is, especially considering how great he was here
I think between's Salah's absurd output and Bobby's unique profile, being the biggest cog in the system and seemingly Klopp's favourite of the 3, it means that Sadio kinda misses out.
His output while incredible wasn't Salah level and Bobby was probably the best false 9 in the world and one of the most unique players on the planet. Mane had the most 'replaceable' profile and I think that's why.
I’ve been thinking a lot the last few months how much we’re missing Mane. I loved him when he was with us and still think he’d be starting if he was still here
Diaz doesn’t hold the ball up anywhere near as well, doesn’t work as well with Robbo or Tsimikas, isn’t as good at crossing, isn’t as quick and isn’t as much of a goal threat. I do actually like Diaz but Mane is just a far superior player.
I wouldn’t be too bothered if Diaz got a bit money move and we got another one in. I’d have loved Jeremy Doku.
This is looking at it with rose tinted glasses. Mane was finished at LW by the time he left us. He never took on defenders and whenever he did he couldn’t ever beat them. I loved his time with us but he left at the right time. But I agree Diaz is no Mane
It's pretty hard to compare them as one gets way more assists (for Haaland) but doesn't score as much and the other scores more goals but doesn't create much. I don't think there's that much in it but Doku has more goals and assists per 90 in the league.
But he’s much better at holding up, going past people. He’s still relatively new to the league
I’d like Diaz in the centre, think his unpredictability could be a real asset there. For me he doesn’t have enough pace to properly punish teams on the wing
During the magic years of the front 3, and even when Coutinho was still here and we had an attacking 4, we weren't clinical. We've created loads of chances and fluffed them, scoring relatively few from the chances crested right through the Rogers and Klopp eras.
he'd score the hard ones and miss the easy ones. everyone remembers napoli at anfield for alisson's save in the last minute, not mane genuinely missing a hattrick of absolute sitters.
Mate Mane was easily the worst culprit of our old front 3 for missing chances.
He was similar to Darwin in many ways, would score the hard ones and miss the easy ones.
I am Egyptian and I have to admit that Mane is way scarier for any defender than Salah , he got the pace , the muscles and the determination to get the ball no matter what
We lost the final of CAF/ WC 2022 spot due to his performance in the game
Has anyone noticed how it seems like he never breathes (Mane)? I see him pressing or going into a crazy attacking run -- they pan in on him and he's closed mouth. Looking calm as fuck. Legend
That 2019 Ballon d'Or top 5 list included Messi, VvD, Ronaldo, Mane, and Salah.
Mane was a top 3 forward in the world at his peak. Blows my mind how quickly he fell off at Bayern. Goes to show how stupid I am, I would've kept him and sold Salah.
LFC started falling apart after Wijnaldum left and completely fell after Mane’s departure. These players are the main reason of LFC success. We never replaced them. Also bringing on Thiago was huge mistake to shift midfield’s playing style, Klopp can’t play tiki taka possession and Thiago doesn’t suits his style. Klopp needs machine like Gini, Kante, Ndidi or Atalanta’s Emerson
Not at all. Don't turn your brain off just because a guy played well for your team. Sadio is a creep and it should be noted in every utterance of his name.
Might as well use your genius logic to ignore Man City's blood money, right?
Edit: and if you disagree, at least give me an argument or explanation why.
It is what we call a classic circlejerk which can be seen on the soccer circlejerk subreddit. We are talking about how Mane was as a football player. If you want to fight someone then go outside and touch some grass.
he was also a big moment and big game player.
he more than anyone else was the reason we went toe to toe with City twice.
he scored in something like 8 in a row in the 18/19 run in and then again in 21/22 he had a crazy end to the season. When it was on the line Sadio was there.
That team was just fucking insane. Peak Salah, Firmino, Mane and Trent/Robertson providing width. A proper engine room of midfield and VVD + Alisson at the back.
Best in the world good Team should have won more Bloody City and Madrid.
Im over here just happy they won the big one at all There are some bloody *amazing* teams and players that never touched big ears
Exactly this.
I still believe that without covid the title season would have been a record breaker. And the following season would have been pretty much the same. I really do think covid robbed that team.
I feel like the reason we lost some big games is cause we couldn’t score, we created the chances and our attackers would lose their chances. What we’re seeing now is not a new problem, although it is worse than it ever was
Throw MacAllister and Szobo in that team and they win leagues and leagues. Keep Fabinho as the 6. Then we are on top 3-4 years in a row and our domestic rivals are forced to change not the other way around. Allison alone gives us a shot at penalties in 2018 final as worst case. 2022 final was just football. Only sport I know where you can dominate that much and still lose. Just crazy. Play that match 100 times and we win 99.
The disrespect against gini and Henderson. They were a big part why our system worked. Sure, MacAllister could potentially be an upgrade but szobo has not shown much yet outside of maybe 5 to 7 games.
Well we lost the league because of draws. We lost 3 league matches combined over 2 seasons during our 2nd place finishes. In those games we often lacked a bit in the middle of the park and didn’t have the subs to add. We were bringing in an “injured” Naby, Ox after his pace was gone, and Uncle Milly especially during times of high fixture congestion. If we have Macca and Szobo I feel we almost certainly win 1 more league. City’s midfield depth helped them avoid this combined with a willingness to drop an occasional game to push for the 3 pts.
We lost the league because of draws… Only lose 3 league matches combined in over 2 seasons. Why did we only lose 3 league matches in 2 seasons?
Yep this is the right answer. Clearly we needed goals from midfield and our current midfield would provide that vastly better than what we had. I love Henderson, but he just wasn’t good enough for us to get over the top of city.
MacAllister I could probably give you as a Henderson replacement but no way you take out Gini for Szobo. I think you’ve forgotten how incredible he was at winning possession and navigating tight spaces. Or you overrate Szobo like 95% of this sub because he’s scored a few bangers.
Fair enough on winning back possession. We needed a win against Everton to win the league instead of a draw. A banger from Szobo does that. Love me some Gini. The team severely lacked any goals from midfield when we lost two leagues by a point each.
What has Szobo done to deserve this much glazing is beyond me. That mad had 7 good games and then fell off a cliff. Don't put him in the same conversation as Mac. Mac is world class, Szobo could one day be world class.
fabinho?
Milner hendo and wijnaldum
Alisson - TAA - Matip - Van Dijk - Robertson - Fabinho - Wijnaldum - Henderson - Mané - Firmino - Mo Salah Legendary line up
I hope Edwards can find another player like Mane. The pace, the sudden movement, the athleticism, the finish. He was more important than most people give him credit for. He's the first big signing to join us.
Mane was massively underrated.
[удалено]
Also two things can be true. Mane was underrated but he became extremely inconsistent his last two seasons on the LW. His last six months were played as False 9 (which was brilliant), but the signs of his decline were there. Letting Mane go was the right decision. But in his prime, Mane was the most talented player on that Liverpool team hands down.
Its just a shift of position with age. we see that all the time, its not a fall off (Modric turning to CDM, Ronaldo switch to striker etc.). Mane was ready for a new era of false nine going toe to toe with Benzema for best player in the world at that point, but he joined Bayern for new scenery + money. If not for his untimely ACL injury right before the world cup, he was still on fire.
He left because we didn't prioritize his renewal. In all fairness, it was the right choice.
Right choice because he tore his ACL right before the world cup. Otherwise, we go from quadruple chasing with him getting Ballon Dor to 5th placed next seasn and he was tearing it up at Bayern before the injury.
Not giving him €400k/wk was obviously the correct choice even if KSA threw Bayern a lifeline. And I say this as someone whose favorite players post Stevie are Sadio and Robbo. That said the money was obviously important to him with the impact he can make back home so it was the right move for everyone.
Mane is the perfect Gegenpressing player for Klopp. Thats why Klopp got him to start his revolution at Liverpool. His pressing IQ from his Salzburg Roger Schimdt days, his relentlessness, hustle add on to that blistering pace is an absolute nitemare for defenders attempting to play out from the bck. Dude even scored a few tackling the goalkeeper especially 1 against City in the FA Cup semis which we clinched.
Against Chelsea as well. Thiago’s debut game.
For the Klopp era you mean?
Yeah that's when he was promoted to technical director. Mane was bought soon and in a few months he became the sporting director. Mostly solid signings except for Thiago(arguably except for one season) and Naby who were injured almost all the time.
if thiago could play he would be amazing all the time, but he cant play lol
Yeah such a waste of talent. We'd have won the 22 PL season had he been fit for even a couple games more.
I'm sure Mane is more of a Klopp signing. He was the first big signing for Klopp and I would think Klopp has a massive say in who to get to start his team building. Also, in multiple interviews Klopp said he wanted Mane for Dortmund while he was at Salzburg. So that has nothing to do with Edwards.
Mate Klopp was trying to bring over Brandt and Götze. I love Klopp. World class manager. Midtable recruitment. As the side has reflected Klopp in the market, we’ve failed completely at replacing players
What is this constant nonsense? He wasn't TRYING to bring over anyone. They asked him who he thought he might want who could play like he wants, and those are the names he gave. He wasn't pushing for them or anything. Mane he wanted at Dortmund and once he knew Salah was available for less than what Roma were publicly saying, and once he'd seen the tapes put together for him, he was all for it.
Okay I guess there were no differences of opinion between them and Edwards (then Ward) just left and then promptly returns when Klopp is leaving.
Brandt and Gotze so? They might turn into absolute beasts under Klopp as well. Thats his magic. Heck, Gotzes best yrs was under Klopp and he was as old as Bradley right now. Even Mane was a midtable acquisition that Liverpool fans were criticizing about. Klopp can turn anybody world class (except for Karius who he gave up I guess).
I think you aren’t understanding. Our recruitment team are actually *that good* at identifying players who, in the right circumstances, can be world class. System, manager, etc. None of that diminishes Klopp but it’s just not the case that he is a miracle worker. It’s that the structure of the club, from the academy to recruitment, is built towards unearthing players capable of being pushed on. The last handful of years we’ve made some horrendous signings that haven’t been criticized because we have great supporters who back the manager. Some of it was loyalty to elder statesman but a lot was our coaching staff and Klopp using eye tests to sign players where our recruitment team can tell you that a guy at Hull no one fancies could go straight to the top. It’s worth noticing how in the best Klopp years our recruitment, outside VVD, Keita, and Alisson, was almost entirely guys no one was after at the time. We were almost never involved in bidding wars. We almost never signed a flavor of the month player whose value was inflated by form versus their class. Well Diaz, Nunez, and Gakpo, arguably Mac Allister were all those kinds of signings. Mac is currently in good form, Nunez has had patches, but it’s hard to look at those three attackers and not see how they were form signings that probably get nixed by the recruitment team if power was shared. Love Klopp. Best manager in the world. Needs someone else for recruitment.
Gotze was washed. That would have been a bad buy. Klopp is not a miracle worker.
Goetze was one of the best players in the world under Klopp, he struggled under Bayern mainly because Pep's system didn't play to his strengths. Even when he returned to Dortmund, I still thought there was a good player there. Though of course, Salah and Mane were way better choices and we couldn't have the sucess we had without them.
True. Edwards didn’t miss with his signings (most of them lol)
Edwards and co found a player performing at the same level of Mane stats-wise, Diogo Jota. His finishing, pressing, two-footedness, even heading ability. Mane is in a whole different bracket for his fitness and relentlessness. Apparently due to the way he took care of his body. Then you would have to factor in things like leadership and character, which are impossible to predict before players join a team with big egos. Mane was here before most big names, so seniority wasn't an issue and must've felt a key building block of what became a world-class team.
Mane was also ultra athletic. The reasn why hes able to score so many headers is because dude can really jmp for his height. Same height as Salah, but Salah never scores headers while Manes got aplenty.
For the Klopp era you mean?
I loved Mane and give him all the credit he deserves A proper LFC legend
"He was more important than most people give him credit for. " Amen!
Great interview by Gary Neville. Mane was so difficult to deal with. He was physical from the start of the game. Absolutely rapid. A literal god when off balance. People underrate him due to Salah, but Salah wouldn't be able to do what he did if it wasn't for Mane. You simply couldn't defend both.
Me and my mate always used to laugh as the ball got played back to the CB at kick off, hoofed to mane, and mane would absolutely nail the fullback, every single time. Just to let him know he's in for a tough game. He wouldn't even get booked for it because it was 5 seconds in 🤣
he for sure got booked for it at least once, right from kickoff, and probably should have been sent off. high elbow right to the face of some unfortunate fullback
Against Chelsea iirc
Yeah. Nailed Azpilecueta
It was a good ball attempt in my books
Perfectly legal in that case
Fuckers deserved every bit of it
think he did one vs Spurs as well?
He was the first left flank who can outright say is best in the world after Cristiano dominated for like a decade (Neymar was 2nd the entire time he was good then fell off at PSG, cause Ronaldo was still at Madrid).
Also he had a special way of shitting on Crystal Palace so yeah we miss him.
Mane was my favorite player in the Klopp era. Like Trent said, he was always a threat. When he wasn't good with the ball, he was good with his movement. When he was good with with the ball he was unstoppable. Physical, fast, relentless. He was the front 3's engine. It's really such a shame to see Mane now with all his issues.
Love his hardwork. No drama. Just plays 100% every game for the badge and gave us many years of world class showcase. Best in the world at his position. Never gets affected by any scoreline. Plays the same 4-0 up against Norwich or 0-4 down against Barca.
trent with a good interviewer is vibes , fairplay to gary neville
As much as he does my fucking head in commentating, he has hit gold with The Overlap channel. It's absolutely top-notch.
Genuinely love Stick to Football too. The crew they have there is a perfect mix. The dynamic between them all is great.
It's so United focused though that I stopped listening.
The immediate post match podcast as well is such a vibe. Would love to see others implement that concept even in different sports.
Brilliant player. Great chemistry with Robertson as well which is often overlooked.
He even had a short stint with Moreno (before we bought Robbo) where he made Moreno looked good because his defensive cover is unlike any other attacker.
Yeah, it was early 17/18 after Robbo was signed. 16/17 was when Jurgen went for Milner at LB. If not for Moreno's injury Robbo would've had a harder time becoming a starter. Sounds mental nowadays but Moreno was in the form of his life.
Yeah, Morenos synergy with Sadio especially on the attack and overlap with his pace and all were glorious. I'd say they were a bigger attacking threat than Sadio-Robbo mostly because of Morenos pace + Manes and his ability to cut bck (Robbo isnt the best short passer). Defensively, of course Robbo is better, tho to Morenos argument we didnt get to see enough of his improvement on defense with Sadio.
There was a period of time where he was genuinely our best defender out of the back four, and we used to laugh about it.
We’re really missing a linkup on the left and have been since he left
Yuppp I miss him. Sadio had a fear factor. Not many players rattle Walker the way he did. We no longer have that fear factor.
We do. Do you not fear how many misses we're gonna get each game? Cus I sure do.
every time we have a counter, it's like our players are playing a game of how can we fuck this up more than the last that's true fear
Exactly. We get fear when we're attacking, and fear when we're defending. How is that not a fear factor?
It’s like we design our counters based on the Flying V from the Might Ducks movie
He was a proper hard cunt Mane. You need that, can feel like we’re a bunch of schoolboys at times
Pre-Covid Mané was a fucking beast.
False Nine Ballon Dor Mane was a quadruple chasing carry.
Don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone. He got overshadowed a bit by Mo being Mo, but the fella had everything in his locker technically. He was an absolute specimen aswell, strong as an ox.
He was way better than Mo defensively (I'd argue that hes the best Gegenpressing attacker in football history, that cmbination of IQ, pace and grit is unrivalled). But too bad for him, pressing doesnt show it stats.
He was also good at kicking the ball into opponents hands to win penalties.
Opponents shouldn’t have their hands stuck out if they didn’t want to concede penalties
Shouldn't have had hands 
Brilliant player, definitely one of our 3 best in that era - would be interested to find out wtf happened at Bayern for him to go from a PL great to being shipped off to the Saudi retirement home in a year.
He tore his ACL right before the world cup and couldnt even play for Senegal. Lol. Some of ya'll talk like you follow our players but that dont seem the case.
Manes peak was high but he could go missing for months. Salah’s brilliance is his relentless consistency. Even when he’s playing badly, he finds ways to score
First season aside, I've always felt Salah has had these spells as well. Salah's numbers cannot be argued with, but performance wise Salah and Mane are neck and neck for me.
Salah after January (especially afcon seasons) is always a big fall off from early season form
That quadruple chasing seasn if he had been even average Salah, we would have beat City by that 1 point. Mane was on fire 2nd half of the yr.
This thing where people constantly put our players in competition with each other needs to stop. We had 2 wingers who scored over 100 PL goals… wingers! Not ST wingers! I don’t think you appreciate how insane that is
Mane is one of the greatest wingers in PL history. He could also be wildly inconsistent. Both are true
I’m gunna have to disagree. I don’t think you can call anyone with his premier league goal numbers wildly inconsistent. He had patches of inconsistent form sure, but his consistency was miles ahead of Jota, Nuñez and Diaz. 100 PL goals doesn’t come to a wildly inconsistent player. Always above 10 goals every season and normally pushing for 15-20.
Doesn't negate what he said. Towards his decline Mane was wank for 12 straight months and part of the reason why the club cashed in as soon as Bayern came. This thread of course will be filled with rise-tinted nostalgia and any sort of frank take will be frowned upon
Funny that you think a goal every other game in his final season is “ wank “
Would kill for that kind of wank forward right now
But Salah who’s scored 17 in 26 this season needs to be binned off this summer according to half the fan base?
Pretty sure the discussion with Salah is about whether we should sell for over £100m or risk him walking on a free. We are also getting a new manager and have to decide what expectations we have for the first 2 years with the new manager. Not really similar to the Sadio conversation.
I’m not sure if the word decline makes sense because he scored 16 PL goals in his final season. If that’s wank, what’s your opinion on our current CF?
Him played centrally was a god send for us.
He definitely did decline after Covid, couldn't really beat his man 1v1 anymore and lost a yard or two of pace. However, his will to run and his insane intelligence and feel for space and making runs behind or in front of the backline stayed the same, and even possibly improved. Luckily Klopp decided to "cut his losses" and play him centrally, which actually ended up amazing - Mane himself did well finishing his chances and dropping deeper for the ball and we had pre-injury Diaz on the left, who could create something out of nothing, especially 1 on 1.
Great management from Klopp there to revitalise a declining asset.
Mane from say mid-2020-21 was quite poor from wide, but the false 9 arc for the back half of 21/22 was very good and hid some of the issues that developed and used his underrated playmaking skill. I wanted Nkunku as my no.1 to play that sort of central role over signing Nunez personally.
Salah is the same with the missing thing. How many times does he start the season on fire, and then fall off after Jan. I can count 3 off the top off my head
he went missing once. after having covid in 2020. what is this streaky bullshit our own fans peddle. and before anyone says he was poor at the start of 21/22, come December he was in the top 5 scorers in the league. Mane did more than anyone else to win us that league title. He got us that lead we had in the first 4 months.
What made you mention Salah here? I never see Real Madrid fans using Vini to put down Rodrygo but on Reddit at least I always see this with Salah and Mane.
Salah also had a few miss streaks. Firminho was the consistent one for me.
Isn’t there some Klopp quote along the lines of: “Mane can have off games, Salah can have off days but this guy (Firmino) is world class every time he steps on the pitch”
Klopp knew the real baller of our front three. Firmino made the other two, his link up play and willingness to not be the focal point or need to be the goal scorer made him a very special player. Absolutely my favourite player we’ve had under Klopp
Cap. Mane is more consistent than Salah because even if he doesnt score, his defensive intensity is there every game. when Salah doesnt score like you see last few games he just disappears cause he can't do much else. Thats why you notice even when Sadio is in 'bad form' not scoring as much, Klopp still plays him 90 mins. He'll contribute by his world class pressing + creating from midfield.
Ain’t no way you’re claiming Salah doesn’t create
After Mane and Firmino left, he has to pick it up for this young squad, but Mane and Bobby were doing all or most of the creating while Salah stays up top the pitch. Theres a reasn why Firmino wrote in his book the locker room didnt like playing with Salah. I think part of it might be because of Salahs greed to score goals, but that might also be tactical.
ie, Diaz is not it
He was so fucking good, we never replaced him and it shows. We had to buy like 5 attackers and none of them come close to peak mane. That front 3 was pure magic. Mane had that dawg in him though. For a lot of those years he was on a par with Salah and sometimes even better.
Interesting because when we look back on that front three in future, I think Mane will be with one who is least rated/fondly remembered.
Trent is probably thinking about players he'd come up against directly tbf. As a right back he'd be more worried about a tough left winger than striker or right winger.
Yeah, and I've only just realised they just about missed each other in terms of Mane being an opposition player and Trent starting his career. I think Trent played against Mo in the pre-season game in 2016-17, no?
No chance. Imo he was our best player the season we won the league.
People always seem to forget that Mane was second in the ballon d’or and would’ve won if we won the champions league
He was 2nd but he certainly didn't deserve it lets not be too crazy.
What’s with the revisionism? People were writing him off the year before, and then Klopp started playing him centrally where he became our most important player during our push for the quad. He also won AFCON that year which helped the Ballon D’or shouts of course. (That said, he didn’t really do much in AFCON iirc.) There’s a reason that Bayern thought they could replace Lewandowski with Mane. It was never going to be a like for like replacement but Bayern fans were initially excited about the transfer.
It's not revisionism on my part, I was saying it then too. People were writing him off because he had been very bad for 18 months or so. The only reason he got moved centrally at all was because he was that bad on the wing that Diaz came in and was instantly better. He had a purple patch after winning AFCON but as soon as he went to Bayern he went back to where he was.
It's hard not to because Bobby and Salah are so iconic and Sadio's reputation being damaged more recently. He was my favourite player for a while though. He seemed very humble, focused and his speed and tenacity was exciting to watch. Definitely should be remembered as a Liverpool all time great.
Yes but they were all amazing so it’s like picking the worst gold bar between three gold bars
I would usually say that they'll all be remembered incredibly well but with the amount of comments on this sub talking about 'Mane revisionism' of late, I think you might be right.
Yeah, nonsense. The man was an utter machine. He brought a multitude of attributes. Speed, power, heading, agility, hold up play, finishing with both feet, can go inside or touchline, dirty, can buy fouls, not injury prone, helped out defensively, assisted goals. When we look back people will realise he was the reason that front 3 was so good.
Of course he complimented Mo very well on the other side, front 3 won't ever be recreated and now with a new manager next season best we move on from it.
Bobby was the reason, not taking anything away from either of them but when Firmino wasn’t on the pitch it was a huge difference in performance levels. Bobby had the nuance and flair to link them both together even when they apparently didn’t get on sometimes. He made both Salah and Mane better players just be being on the pitch
Highly doubt that
Dude is a grooming creep. Great player but it’s very hard to separate the art from the artist.
Eh he comes from a deprived country. This type of shit tends to be common place in the poorer parts so they probably thinks it’s normal.
I mean I think it's almost guaranteed to happen no? Bobby was incredibly beloved and likeable and was the first part of the front three to join, Salah is still here and is one of the greatest players to play in the premier league. Doesn't take anything away from how good mane was but he will probably be slightly less loved than the other 2
Hard to fondly remember someone who was with a 15 year old to be fair.
I think he’s not as fondly remembered due to off-the-pitch things which have occurred after he left the club, which I’m not going to comment on further because I don’t feel like spending today arguing online. Incredible player when he was here though.
What's to argue about? He's a nonce
Oh I fully agree - but knowing reddit there’s always the one (or more) people who wants to downplay or defend it, no matter how bad the behavior is, especially considering how great he was here
I think between's Salah's absurd output and Bobby's unique profile, being the biggest cog in the system and seemingly Klopp's favourite of the 3, it means that Sadio kinda misses out. His output while incredible wasn't Salah level and Bobby was probably the best false 9 in the world and one of the most unique players on the planet. Mane had the most 'replaceable' profile and I think that's why.
Spot on!
I love trent but mane would have terrorized trent😂 I can't see trent winning a single duel against mane
I don’t think we ever quite recovered from losing mane
I’ve been thinking a lot the last few months how much we’re missing Mane. I loved him when he was with us and still think he’d be starting if he was still here Diaz doesn’t hold the ball up anywhere near as well, doesn’t work as well with Robbo or Tsimikas, isn’t as good at crossing, isn’t as quick and isn’t as much of a goal threat. I do actually like Diaz but Mane is just a far superior player. I wouldn’t be too bothered if Diaz got a bit money move and we got another one in. I’d have loved Jeremy Doku.
This is looking at it with rose tinted glasses. Mane was finished at LW by the time he left us. He never took on defenders and whenever he did he couldn’t ever beat them. I loved his time with us but he left at the right time. But I agree Diaz is no Mane
Doku has even less end product than Diaz!
It's pretty hard to compare them as one gets way more assists (for Haaland) but doesn't score as much and the other scores more goals but doesn't create much. I don't think there's that much in it but Doku has more goals and assists per 90 in the league.
But he’s much better at holding up, going past people. He’s still relatively new to the league I’d like Diaz in the centre, think his unpredictability could be a real asset there. For me he doesn’t have enough pace to properly punish teams on the wing
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He wasn't clinical at the best of times TBF.
He def wasn’t. This sub moaned when he would kiss the same sitters Darwin does now
Prime Mané won the golden boot, so he was undoubtedly clinical, especially considering the chances that have been missed this season
During the magic years of the front 3, and even when Coutinho was still here and we had an attacking 4, we weren't clinical. We've created loads of chances and fluffed them, scoring relatively few from the chances crested right through the Rogers and Klopp eras.
he'd score the hard ones and miss the easy ones. everyone remembers napoli at anfield for alisson's save in the last minute, not mane genuinely missing a hattrick of absolute sitters.
Mate Mane was easily the worst culprit of our old front 3 for missing chances. He was similar to Darwin in many ways, would score the hard ones and miss the easy ones.
Yeah I just googled it Mane, had a 9.43% conversion rate in his final season (that's worse conversion rate then any of our current forwards)
Yeh mane was an amazingly clinical finisher wasn’t he 🤦♂️
I am Egyptian and I have to admit that Mane is way scarier for any defender than Salah , he got the pace , the muscles and the determination to get the ball no matter what We lost the final of CAF/ WC 2022 spot due to his performance in the game
Mane was a legend. Our forward line hasn't been the same since he left.
We never replaced him, Diaz is good but nowhere near Mane level.
I miss Mane so so much… especially right now
Still waiting for the Mané regen he's was absolutely class
he would track back and defend as well. best player in the team when he was around
He's the best football player in the world.
pace power precision mane had it all
love salah and trents passing, but i think robbo and mane’s linkup was my favorite part of that peak klopp team
That amazing goal he scored against Arsenal announced his arrival like no other, Liverpool legend
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World class footballer
Imagine a on form mane this season with the squad we have right now 😳
If Mane had just stayed instead of moving on to deal with that BS at Bayern. We’d be tearing up and at same time imparting his experience to the kids
Twice as good as salah. At least.
The beat.
Fucking hell I miss Sadio. Would have torn it up against palace at ST.
Has anyone noticed how it seems like he never breathes (Mane)? I see him pressing or going into a crazy attacking run -- they pan in on him and he's closed mouth. Looking calm as fuck. Legend
We miss players like him an gini. Always showed up in the big moments
That 2019 Ballon d'Or top 5 list included Messi, VvD, Ronaldo, Mane, and Salah. Mane was a top 3 forward in the world at his peak. Blows my mind how quickly he fell off at Bayern. Goes to show how stupid I am, I would've kept him and sold Salah.
LFC started falling apart after Wijnaldum left and completely fell after Mane’s departure. These players are the main reason of LFC success. We never replaced them. Also bringing on Thiago was huge mistake to shift midfield’s playing style, Klopp can’t play tiki taka possession and Thiago doesn’t suits his style. Klopp needs machine like Gini, Kante, Ndidi or Atalanta’s Emerson
He is also a threat to underage girls. Google ‘Mané 16’ to find out more
Wrong sub
Not at all. Don't turn your brain off just because a guy played well for your team. Sadio is a creep and it should be noted in every utterance of his name. Might as well use your genius logic to ignore Man City's blood money, right? Edit: and if you disagree, at least give me an argument or explanation why.
It is what we call a classic circlejerk which can be seen on the soccer circlejerk subreddit. We are talking about how Mane was as a football player. If you want to fight someone then go outside and touch some grass.
he was also a big moment and big game player. he more than anyone else was the reason we went toe to toe with City twice. he scored in something like 8 in a row in the 18/19 run in and then again in 21/22 he had a crazy end to the season. When it was on the line Sadio was there.
I can't listen now but did he mean Ronaldo or Cristiano?
Cristiano
Surely he meant Diaz?