Is Sadio Mane Liverpool’s most important player?

Throughout the last calendar year and a bit, many have proclaimed Virgil van Dijk to be the main change for Liverpool. The club has gone from exciting neutrals option who score and concede with reckless abandon, to being a genuine challenger for trophies. The addition of Mohamed Salah and Alisson Becker have also played a major role in this development. Salah added more attacking diversity, while van Dijk and Becker added solidity and nous to the backline. However, in the rush to hand out accolades at Anfield, one player has slipped through the net: Sadio Mane.

Mane going through incredible season

For the majority of the 2018-19 season, the Senegal international has been in incredible form. His happy mix of technical prowess, physical strength and pace make him an incredibly hard player to stop. He often beats players from a standing start, and has the coolness to finish when it really matters most. This season, he has been the standout forward for Liverpool – far ahead of both Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah in the form stakes.

His impressive debut campaign at Liverpool has been followed up with an even more impressive pair since. Mane is, without doubt, the clutch player for Liverpool. Big goals – not least a brace in Munich against FC Bayern – have become his stock and trade. Late winners in derbies, against Manchester United and Manchester City, have become common. He’s a player who thrives on the big moments, and this season alone has plundered 21 goals. Some might point to his solitary assist all season – but Mane is benefiting from a change in focus.

Slipping under the radar

After a brilliant debut campaign, he was seen as the one to mark. Salah and Roberto Firmino became the ones to be left alone in 2017-18, resulting in a sublime attacking trio. This year, the Brazilian and Egyptian have been marked much closer. Now, Mane is often the one to appear at the back post, running into all the space created by manic defending of the other two.

He’s now become the one to end moves, instead of the one starting them. His incredible versatility, too, has seen him play up front and in both wide areas with total confidence, too. A wonderful finisher and a player who thrives on the big moments, Mane is often the one who makes all the difference at Anfield, despite their title challenge wobbling in recent weeks.

His aggressive and powerful running mixed with his passion for pressing, though, means he isn’t simply being the lucky recipient of more space. His pressing and teamwork as good as ever – but this season he has taken the mantle of being the game-changer with both hands.

PFA Player of the Year contention?

At the moment, it would be hard to argue that there is a more in-form player in the league than Mane. His vital contributions in Europe, too, are essential to the club’s rapid growth in the three seasons he has been there. Once seen as a supplementary attacking option to Salah and Firmino, this season has elevated Mane to, arguably, the most important of the three. Amazingly, he isn’t a frontrunner for the  PFA player of the year award, despite knocking the most goals (when taking away penalties) this season (16).

Virgil van Dijk and Sadio Mane will battle it out for PFA Player of the Year, says Clinton Morrison #LFC https://t.co/SGwkvD2TsZ

— Express Sport (@DExpress_Sport) March 16, 2019

If Mane continues this incredible rate of development, there’s nothing to say the Reds won’t go one better than they did last year. A constant big-game player, Mane now has the one thing he lacked last year to truly shine: space. Liverpool might just reap the rewards of their opposition marking the wrong part of the pitch between now and June.

Featured Image Credit: “Mané” (CC BY-NC 2.0) by TERRY KEARNEY