Former Aston Villa forward Gabriel Agbonlahor has claimed that Sadio Mane ‘wasn’t at the races’ during Liverpool’s 2-0 defeat of Inter Milan yesterday.
The Reds took a huge step towards the quarter-finals with the victory over Simone Inzaghi’s men and with Jurgen Klopp having a fully fit squad to choose from at the San Siro, Mane was replaced by new signing Luis Diaz in the second half.
“Mane wasn’t at the races yesterday,” Agbonlahor told talkSPORT (via The Boot Room).
“What did they do? They brought him off. I think he was sulking a bit when he came off but that’s what they’ve got now.
“They’ve got Diaz ready to come on, he can start games as well. So they’ve got that bigger squad now, Liverpool so everyone’s got to be on their toes.”
Diaz looked really sharp when he came on.
The Colombian was forward-thinking in everything he did – he drove at the Inter defence, pressed with intensity and was unfortunate to not test Samir Handanovic in the Inter goal after linking up well with Trent Alexander-Arnold minutes after being introduced to the action.
Mane has had a lot of travelling and late nights recently after winning the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal so there is the argument that our No. 10 may just be experiencing some fatigue.
We play enough games during the season for all of our squad to receive enough game time and competition for places will only make players better
As long as the competition amongst the squad remains friendly then we’re all for it!