Sadio Mane is leaving Liverpool for Bayern Munich, and his departure will leave a massive gap in the Reds’ team.
Yes, Liverpool have signed Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz in recent months to bolster their attack, and while both of those players are brilliant, they’re not quite the same as Mane.
Indeed, Mane’s skillset is an incredibly unique one. His combination of pace, skill and footballing IQ make him almost a one-of-a-kind footballer, but interestingly, there is one player out there who ranks very similar to the Senegalese star statistically.
According to CIES’s player profiling, there is one player in Europe who is almost a like-for-like match for Mane, and if recent reports are to be believed, he could be sold this summer.
We’re talking about Raheem Sterling.
The Football Observatory’s technical profiling methodology found earlier this year that Mane and Sterling are two of the most similar players in Europe’s top-five leagues, and if Sterling is on the market, Liverpool should be all over this deal.
Of course, there is more to this potential move than just signing a talented footballer. There is a lot of history between Sterling and Liverpool and a move may not be possible due to the sour grapes between the England international and the club’s fanbase, but, in our view, Liverpool have to be asking this question, especially if a reported £35m fee is accurate.
Yes, there is an argument to be made that signing Sterling would be overkill in terms of the number of attacking players Liverpool have, but this could also be seen as a pre-emptive measure ahead of Mohamed Salah’s potential departure next summer as his contract winds down.
CIES’s research shows that Sterling is the perfect Mane replacement, and Liverpool would be fools to not at least look into a deal.
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