Sadio Mane’s first season at Liverpool is regarded as an unadulterated success – and rightly so.
He hit the ground running and made the Premier League Team of the Year, with Thierry Henry even tipping him for Player of the Year around Christmas – before our form fell off a cliff in January.
In 2015/16, in all competitions, Mane scored 13 goals and got six assists.
In 2020/21, with six games left of the season, Mane has 13 goals and seven assists in all comps.
We’re not suggesting he’s been better than his debut Liverpool season – but his numbers now are actually a little more productive.
Obviously, we’re judging him now on the world-class form he showed between 2017 and 2020 – which was jaw-dropping – and are fully confident he’ll reach those heights again.
We just wanted to point out how expectations can dramatically change and someone can be playing ‘well’ or ‘poorly’ based on if viewed as an individual entity, the same performance.