All the talk today has been surrounding Sadio Mane’s imminent return from the African Cup of Nations as opposed to Saturday’s defeat against Wolves, thankfully.
Having said that, the excitement towards the forward’s return is perhaps mainly fuelled by Saturday’s dreadful result.
Though we shouldn’t celebrate Senegal’s elimination from the African Cup of Nations, especially after it was the cause of an inconsolable Mane, we are delighted and admittedly relieved to be getting our top scorer back.
Former Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard has expressed how important having him available to play again is, telling BT Sport via the Liverpool Echo: “It’s clear for everyone to see, he’s a top player and we’ve missed him so much.”
“He comes with that pace and unpredictability. To stretch teams you need to run in behind and he does it for 90 minutes.”
“What he does to the opposition is, two players have to worry about him – which leaves gaps all over the pitch for other players.”
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Our attacking play has gradually delved into a state of frustrating predictability of late and Mane is the man to turn that around.
Liverpool could be boosted by his return to the bench for Tuesday’s game against Chelsea with the club arranging a private jet to bring him back from Gabon as soon as possible.
Let’s hope his presence sparks the revival of the explosive attacking play that saw us put together such an impressive start to the campaign.