If Sadio Mané could improve this part of his game, he’d be up there with some of the very best.
Ahead of Liverpool’s win over Tottenham, on Saturday, Robbie Keaner recalled comments from Shane Long on Mané when he was with the Saints.
“Keep an eye on this lad,” Long told his Ireland teammate, “he’s going to be something.”
Liverpool gave Paris Saint Germain the full-on Champions League night at Anfield treatment on Tuesday and still almost contrived to draw the game.
Jurgen Klopp’s side went 2-0 up but Alisson conceded to Thomas Meunier and Kylian Mbappe and we were all square going into the final straight. Roberto Firmino’s late strike saw them emerge with all three points.
One of the main talking points of the game has to be the striking display of Sadio Mané and the lacklustre performance of Neymar. Rarely do we see the Brazilian served up a dose of his own medicine, yet at Anfield on Tuesday night, we saw exactly that.
Liverpool were on top from the early stages of their 3-2 win over Paris Saint-Germain. Prior to Daniel Sturridge heading home their opening goal of the game, Neymar had dropped back to help his defence deal with the home side’s relentless pressure.
Mané shaped right and then left Neymar in concrete boots at the edge of the box.
😵 Outrageous. Sadio Mané sends Neymar and picks up Skill of the Day 👌 @Mastercard #UCL pic.twitter.com/nK7jqKWmSR
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) September 18, 2018
It was a moment that drew gasps from the home crowd, a nod of appreciation from Neymar and blew up on social media.
Beautiful as it was, a longer clip of the Mané move (below) shows what must be the biggest impediment from him being considered truly world-class.
After ghosting by Neymar, Mané jagged in and then cut back to shoot. His left-footed effort, under very little pressure, ballooned wide.
Sadio Mane sending Neymar to The Asda for Bread, Milk and a share bag of Beef Monster Munch 👋🏼 @LFC #SeeYa pic.twitter.com/2mHBqsz95i
— Peter Wick (@PeterWick) September 18, 2018
Imagine how long we would have been talking about this snatching of Neymar’s soul had Mané finished off the chance he had created for himself. Score a goal and this would be remembered long past this season. Blaze wide and we’ll enjoy the clip before moving on quickly.
That was Mané’s first of three missed efforts on the night. He was an absolute handful for Liverpool all night and constantly gets into good scoring positions but he should be scoring more.
An odd complaint, granted, for someone with four goals in five games this season but if he improves his shots to goals ratio by even 20% then he is in business.
