‘Their Standout Performer’ According to a pundit, Liverpool should not have sold this superstar winger
Nigerian analyst Efan Ekoku believes Liverpool should not have sold Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich, describing him as ‘probably Liverpool’s finest player for five years’.
Ekoku lauded Mane for making the transition from Southampton to Liverpool without a hitch, calling it a ‘big’ leap and praising the Senegalese wide man’s mindset.
While he admits that Mohamed Salah is Liverpool’s “best goal scorer,” he believes that Sadio Mane was the club’s “best player,” and that “nobody disagrees with that.”
What did Efan Ekoku have to say about Sadio Mane?
“He surprised almost everybody, he looked a good player then at Southampton, but did anyone have [Sadio] Mane in the top five African players in the world at that time?” Ekoku remarked on the BBC Match of the Day Top 10 Africa Podcast. Nobody would agree.
“The jump from Southampton to Liverpool is huge, to make that jump and be the talisman and to be arguably Liverpool’s best player for five years is what Mane was.
“Everyone I’ve spoken to in the last six months says Liverpool kept their best goalscorer in [Mohamed] Salah, but they sold their best player, nobody disagrees with that.”
Was Sadio Mane Liverpool’s greatest player when he left?
For several years, Liverpool’s front three was consisted of Salah, Mane, and Roberto Firmino. Salah is now the sole player left at the club, with Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez coming in to replace him.
They each played an important part in the system, but their replacements have demonstrated that they were not absolutely indispensable to the squad. Only Salah has yet to be replaced, which suggests that he was the best of the three.
When the goalscoring statistics of Mane and Salah are compared, it is revealed that Mane scored 111 Premier League goals in 263 games, while Salah scored 144 Premier League goals in 239 games.
Mane has six goals and two assists for Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League this season, while Salah has five goals and four assists for Liverpool in the Premier League.
