CIES’ most recent report has been published, and their statistical profiling has produced a very interesting finding about Sadio Mane.
Indeed, CIES’ data shows that Mane is actually the most similar footballer in Europe to Raheem Sterling .
The Manchester City winger is, according to CIES, the closest thing to the perfect archetype for a winger in modern football, and the data shows that Mane is the most similar player to Sterling in Europe.
Of course, this is very interesting when you consider that Mane is Sterling’s spiritual successor at Liverpool.
Indeed, Sterling left the Reds back in 2015, and one year later, Mane turned up at Anfield to take his place.
Liverpool clearly wanted a like-for-like Sterling replacement, and they’ve seemingly found the perfect solution in Mane.
The Reds certainly got it right when signing the Senegalese winger. He’s replaced Sterling brilliantly, winning a Premier League Golden Boot and hitting double figures in every single season he’s spent at Liverpool thus far.
We know that Liverpool’s recruitment team are big on analytics, and while this analysis is new, we have to wonder if he Reds spotted the statistical similarities between Mane and Sterling when swooping for the winger from Southampton all those years ago.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
