Sadio Mane missed a big chance against Leicester City and marked his ninth match without a goal or assist, which has lead some fans to call for him to be dropped.
Our No.10 received a lot of negativity online after his decisive miss at the King Power Stadium, a chance (if it was taken) that would have put Jurgen Klopp’s team one goal up.
The Senegalese forward has had a difficult period, in terms of goal contributions, and this combined with a poor result meant he received a tough time last night.
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Here’s a selection of some fan reaction to his performance:
Mané has to get dropped Sunday, surely? Tell him to go AFCON early, so fucking hard to watch #LEILIV #LFC #YNWA
— Sayif Ahmed (@sayif_a8) December 28, 2021
Honest opinion, Mane needs dropped for a few games #LFC
— Stephen Laverty (@SteLaverty94) December 28, 2021
Been saying it for a couple of weeks now but Mane needs rested, his first touch is a tackle
— Daz (@dazzaM76) December 28, 2021
Don’t buy for a second Mane is finished but was curious to see what his stats in this period of the season are like because it’s always felt like he’s underperforming in December & January. Almost every year since he came to England there’s been a big drop in output at this time.
— Dan (@Dan23_92) December 29, 2021
There’s always a scapegoat following a defeat and it does appear as though the 29-year-old has taken the brunt of the negative fan reaction.
It is telling that his contract negations have been nowhere near as highly scrutinized as Mo Salah’s, despite the duo being the same age and playing a similar role in our team.
At the same time though, he is the joint 8th top scorer in the league (in a front three that contains the top two finishers) and our manager has stayed very loyal to his services.
If he’s good enough for the German and has proven to us all so many times that he is the man for the job, let’s cut him some slack.
One more game against Chelsea and then a break for AFCON means that he will be getting a rest from our side and should be able to return fired up for some big performances in the second half of the season.
With all this talk about this and that record, it is not surprising that the front three are trying too hard, even if breaking a record is not uppermost in their minds. Commentators, pundits and ‘tubers carry on with “records this and records that” it is difficult to not let that influence your game. Let them just try to enjoy the job that they do and speak about records at the end of the season without any undue pressure.
If I hear one more dude citing stats whereby Mane is 8th scorer this year bla bla bla I’m going to throw up. Stop the excuses. No one wants a top player dropped because he missed one sitter but Mane has been absolutely awful in all aspects of his game for 2 months now! Can’t score, can’t assist and more worryingly his decisions are atrocious to the point where every ball going into him is there to die. Poor touches, dribbles himself to a stand still when he should push forward, shoots when an open pass is available on and on. He is completely confusing his parters as no one knows what he will do next..
Jota needs to play left and Firmino back center for Chelsea game, Mane on the bench as an option to run at them second half. Also god forbid we see useless Ox anymore as a starter in midfield unless it’s a cup game. He brings absolutely nothing. We played two man down yesterday and it ruined also the chemistry of the team. Yes, salah’s missed PK certainly didn’t help but no excuses, Leicester was a tired patched up team hanging in by a thread. Unfortunately it showed yesterday to all of us pessimists why we said we have zero chances against City, and frankly against Chelsea too this year, over the course of the long season. Our squad is way too thin at this level and we also carry quite a few passengers. Finally again yesterday we saw why TAA may never become the great player they praise him to be. Amazing going forward, excellent skills but way too vulnerable in his main job. Fans may say what they want but when basically every single opposite manger is targeting him you just know he is the weak link. Yesterday they persisted on his side vs going after the inexperienced Tsimikas.. that should tell everyone what actual experts not taking heads see on the field. And it worked. Time and again, even with protection, he was exposed and shown.. no blatant mistakes just lack of awareness and poor positioning and difficulty one on one against tricky wingers. This is difficult for Klopp to solve as it is not like Mane – bad form – drop him for a while, it is who TAA is and Our game is built around him so we will always suffer there.. when Hendo doesnt have a solid game TAA is out at sea defensively…
Totally agree with you Bogdan on every 👉