“Has to get a grip”: Pundit thinks player is struggling after asking to leave Liverpool

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Back in May, the Guardian revealed that Sadio Mane wanted to leave Liverpool, with Bayern Munich keen to bring him to the Bundesliga.

After a number of unsuccessful offers, the German giants eventually managed to sign the Senegal international in a deal worth £35m.

After a strong start to life at the Allianz Arena, in which he scored three goals in his first three Bundesliga appearances, Mane has now been told where he’s going wrong in Germany.

What’s the story?

Well, it was Didi Hamann who expressed his concerns about the 30-year-old to GMX.

The man who made 283 appearances for Liverpool claimed that Mane is being used incorrectly by Julian Nagelsmann, and is much better suited to a wide position rather than in the middle of the attack.

Hamann said: “He is not integrated. I saw him at Liverpool, where he played through the middle. That is not his position. Now he’s taking that position at Bayern as well.

“He doesn’t look happy to me. Nobody is talking about Mane at the moment. He seems isolated and hardly takes part in the game. Bayern has to get a grip on that.”

Mane has been tasked with replacing the utterly prolific Robert Lewandowski at Bayern Munich, a man who remarkably scored 50 goals in all competitions last season.

Therefore, he has plenty of pressure on him, and we feel Hamann has been slightly reactionary with his comments.

Sadio Mane is doing well after Liverpool exit

Criticism of Mane has only arisen after two quiet displays in Bayern Munich’s opening two Champions League games against Inter Milan and Barcelona – a pair of very tough opponents.

Aside from those two games in which he failed to score, the Senegalese forward has netted five goals in eight domestic appearances, which is an excellent return.

Mane is a vastly different player to Lewandowski, so Hamann – as well as the Bayern Munich supporters – shouldn’t expect him to achieve a similar scoring rate to the Poland international.

Additionally, we are only a few weeks into the 2022/23 campaign, so Mane will obviously need time to settle in Munich after spending the past eight years of his career in England.