With Salah’s goals drying up, Mane has jumped in to rescue Reds
A COUPLE of months ago, Mohamed Salah enduring a goal drought would have caused panic among Liverpool fans.
Yet the talismanic striker has gone seven games without scoring and the Reds are top of the Premier League and through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Their progress at home and in Europe is largely down to Sadio Mane’s goals and he has filled the void left by Salah.
Mane has bagged 11 in his last 11 appearances, to join Salah as Liverpool’s top scorer on 20 goals this season.
As Salah has tailed off in 2019 – the Egypt star has just four goals this year – Mane has stepped up to net 11 (in all competitions) since the turn of the year.
Only Sergio Aguero can match his tally of nine Premier League goals in 2019 and the Senegalese is a man in form.
Critically, for Jurgen Klopp’s side, Mane scores
big goals and has netted eight times in Premier League games when the score has been level. Andy Robertson is delighted Mane is in such prolific form at the business end of the season and feels he might even have scored more.
“He could have had a few more actually, but the goal he scored against Fulham shows you how confident he is just now,” said the Scotland captain.
“He’s scoring for fun at the moment and long may that continue, and all of us can pitch in and have a good run-in. We have seven games left and look forward to it.”
Robertson, who is set to miss the Scots’ opening Euro 2020 qualifier against Kazakhstan because he needs dental surgery, was delighted Liverpool came through a massive week with three wins against Burnley, Bayern Munich and Fulham.
He claims winning these difficult games has boosted the Reds for the run-in. “It was a massive week for us,” said the defender. “Beating Burnley at home was difficult, as they are in a similar position to Fulham, and we fell behind.
“Bayern speaks for itself. Then it was all about trying to get our legs ready to go again and go flying into the international break top of the league, and luckily we’ve done that. “It’s rare that teams aren’t playing for anything at this time of the season, so people start fighting and giving it their all. Luckily, we had enough in the tank to get through.”