Speaking on BT Sport’s coverage of Liverpool vs Villarreal (27/4/22 7:25PM), Rio Ferdinand has been waxing-lyrical about Sadio Mane and how much he’s improved since joining Liverpool.
Mane has been at the Reds for six years now, and it’s fair to say that he’s improved massively since arriving at the club.
At Southampton, Mane was a passable Premier League winger, but since coming to Anfield, he’s morphed into one of the best attackers in the world, and Ferdinand believes that nobody saw such a transformation coming.
What’s been said?
Ferdinand spoke about Mane’s improvement.
“The important part is that when players come through the door here, they improve. Look at most of the players that come here. When Mane came here you wouldn’t have said he would be a world-class finisher, striker, really, he’d be a top one, but would he be world class? Even Mo Salah, when he came here you never would have imagined he’d be doing what he’s doing. But they’ve improved so much and had such an impact, you need to champion the coaching and the recruitment here,” Ferdinand said.
Credit to Klopp
Sadio Mane deserves all the praise in the world for consistently pushing himself to the next level, but we also need to give Jurgen Klopp the credit he deserves here.
Klopp has unlocked Mane’s full potential in this team, and now, he can play the Senegalese star in any role and he’ll shine.
Indeed, Mane is now one of the best centre-forwards on the planet as well as one of the best left-wingers, and his transformation is certainly, in part, down to Klopp’s coaching.
The German has helped Mane reach his full potential, and, in turn, that’s helped Liverpool become one of the very best teams in football history.
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