Magic of Mane, and a gift from the Hammers, really turns up pressure dial on City today
AT times, he can become something of a forgotten Mane.
How much airtime, for example, is taken up with debate about Sadio’s contract situation compared to the hours given to Mohamed Salah’s position?
After all, their current agreements end at the same time, the summer of 2023.
You suspect Jurgen Klopp’s keenness to get two new deals sorted will not vary in strength. Despite
Salah’s statistical superiority, Klopp probably considers the Senegal forward as equally important.
One thing is for sure, there is unlikely to be as important a Liverpool Premier League goal as the one helped home by Mane in the first half of a win that turns the pressure dial ahead of Manchester
City’s local clash today. Because somehow, it gave Jurgen Klopp’s team victory in a match that featured two glaring West Ham misses and several squandered Hammers half-chances.
Liverpool dominated possession and had more goal attempts, but there is no disguising the fact that they got away with one here. And let’s face it, David Moyes is never going to win at Anfield, is he?
Not when Pablo Fornals and Manuel Lanzini decide to pass up gilded goal invitations.
But some would probably still argue, with some justification, that Liverpool were the more threatening side in a match that was preceded by another poignant demonstration of unity with Ukraine.
Across the park 48 hours earlier, the crowd had sung along to John Lennon’s Imagine during a pre-match show of solidarity with
Ukraine – at Anfield, they belted out a familiar message. You’ll Never Walk Alone. Football and sport, doing its bit.
And football and sport will always provide moments of escape from the worry that is sweeping the world.
Never mind this was hardly a vintage performance, watching this Liverpool team is routinely a thrill, their cavalier ethos joyously plain to see.
It is easy to forget just how relentless Klopp’s team has been for the best part of four years. This is the age of the Manchester and Merseyside super-teams. Since August 2018, Pep Guardiola’s City have amassed 331 points, Liverpool only three less.
Next on the list is Chelsea, with 258.
City and Liverpool are setting groundbreaking standards and there is no sign of either letting up.
Klopp’s cause was helped by
Declan Rice’s absence, but there are few teams who do not find Liverpool irresistible, at least for periods of a contest.
Meaningful statistics tell their own story. Top three Premier League scorers? Salah, Diogo Jota, Mane.
Top three in the Premier League assist chart? Trent Alexander-Arnold, Salah, Andrew Robertson.
And, of course, Liverpool, with 71 goals, are the competition’s most prolific side. They were miles away from their best in this latest victory but still threatened to create a scoring opportunity on most of the occasions they got into the final third. But it was the chances West Ham created but did not take that won this match for Liverpool.
Fornals wasted a one-onone by allowing AlexanderArnold to clear his dinked attempt and Manuel Lanzini lifted a sitter over.
Michail Antonio tested Alisson a few times from the penalty area’s edge, and while it seemed to be widely acclaimed as a great piece of defending, perhaps VAR should have become involved after Robertson’s saving sliding tackle on Jarrod Bowen.
To add injury to insult, Bowen (left) then had to be helped from the field after another collision.Gareth Southgate names his latest England squad soon, and Bowen had a chance.
That now looks unlikely. And if he is out for a spell, Moyes will miss him.
The West Ham boss will have to deal with that when he has stopped shaking his head over those misses that gifted Liverpool the triumph.
But such is Liverpool’s relentless excellence and attacking commitment, maybe they are entitled to the odd gift.
And thanks to Mane, they weren’t going to turn this one down.