Jurgen Klopp has conceded that Sadio Mane’s form for Liverpool is ‘obviously not great’ at the moment but has backed the attacker to rediscover his goalscoring touch before long.
Mane has easily hit the 20-goal mark in each of his past three seasons for Liverpool.
But this time around, he’ll do well to get anywhere near it.
As things stand, Mane, a £30 million signing in 2016 [The Telegraph], has only netted 12 times and set up another seven from 39 games across all competitions this season.
For whatever reason, the Senegal international has gone off the boil in a big way and although Liverpool boss Klopp has acknowledged as much, the German is backing the former Southampton winger to put things right.
He told Liverpool’s official website: “Obviously the numbers, scoring-wise now, are obviously not great in the moment – he knows that. It’s always for a player and for a player with the mindset of Sadio, he wants to do extremely well then in these moments and that’s the situation he is in. Each striker in the world knows these kinds of situations. But I’m not concerned.”
Is Mane finished? Absolutely not.
The Liverpool attacker turns 29 today but he still has a lot left to offer Klopp.
Remember, this is a Reds side that has been useless domestically for a lot of the campaign and therefore you can’t judge players too harshly based on this season – and especially not when they have a highlight reel longer than Titanic from past seasons.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
