Richard Buxton: PlayStation football from in-form Mane

Senegalese ensures Reds are still involved in the Champions League and EPL

Columnist

Match Report

Mar 15, 2019 06:00 am

Mohamed Salah will need to get used to sharing Liverpool's throne of power.

Anfield continues to hail the Egyptian as its current king, but he no longer reigns supreme.

Without Sadio Mane, the Reds would not have reached the Champions League's last eight, courtesy of a 3-1 second-leg and aggregate win over Bayern Munich yesterday morning (Singapore time).

Arguably, they would not also still be in the conversation for the English Premier League title.

The Senegal international has ensured Juergen Klopp's side remain involved at the business end of the season when the elements attempted to kick them into the middle-distance.

His brace in Bavaria ensured that the spotlight was edged further away from Salah.

Suren Vata is the head physio at Charlton Athletic’s women’s football team.

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For better and worse, the limelight continues to gravitate towards his teammate.

Every time Salah scores, it's hailed as a return to form and each goalless game that passes is a crisis. He has been good but not great, as his current drought ticked over into a sixth successive outing.

With Mane, the lines are far less blurred, especially in his recent vein of form.

But scrutiny comes far easier to the former Southampton winger, amid accusations that he lacks composure in front of goal. A return of 10 strikes in his last 10 games begs to differ.

Salah remains marginally superior in the statistics, with a solitary goal separating the pair in the English Premiership's scoring charts.

They remain level-pegged in Europe's elite club competition, on three apiece.

But goals alone are not a reliable measure of the current sea change in the Reds' attack.

Last season's Player of the Year has assumed a more selfless role in recent weeks, acting as a foil for Mane and others to find the target and kill off games in relatively timely fashion.

Records which he set barely 12 months ago are also being deservedly shared around.

Last weekend, Mane joined Salah in an illustrious company that includes Luis Suarez and Fernando Torres by becoming the fifth Liverpool player to score in six straight home league games.

Away from Anfield, too, he has redefined standards as the club's record European goal scorer on their travels, thanks to his double at the Allianz Arena.

TYING NEUER IN KNOTS

Tying an advancing Manuel Neuer in knots before hooking the ball into an empty net lent itself to Klopp's recent gripe.

The Liverpool manager had bristled at suggestions of "PlayStation football", but Mane is the closest thing that his side have to its embodiment.

No other player currently possesses the combination of pace, guile and finesse that can normally be found only in Fifa video games.

Such is the heightened benchmark at Anfield now, however, that outshining Salah is still not enough to win the recognition that Mane's overall endeavour truly deserves.

He has to also wrestle top billing away from Virgil van Dijk after another imperious performance.

Klopp insisted post-match that a book could be written on the Holland captain.

The chapters would be as weighty as his bullet header to edge Liverpool ahead on the night in Munich.

If today's draw pits them against Manchester City, one of four English sides through to the last eight, the Etihad Stadium's hierarchy might begin to rue what might have been.

Should Liverpool finish this season by winning either the Champions League or the EPL, if not both, the £75 million (S$133.9m) fee for van Dijk that Man City officials visibly baulked at will seem like small change.

With seven goals, Sadio Mane has overtaken Roberto Firmino and Steven Gerrard as Liverpool’s most prolific scorer away from home in the Champions League.