Thierry Henry says former Liverpool winger Sadio Mane was extremely good off-the-ball
Sadio Mane fit into Jurgen Klopp’s system of Geggenpressing like a glove. The player had six extremely successful years at Liverpool, after which he moved to Bayern Munich in search of a new challenge.
In the transitional phase, Liverpool have seemed to struggle a tad bit without one of their forward mainstays. The Reds roped in Darwin Nunez to replace Sadio at the club, but the Uruguayan has still not gone off the mark but shows promise.
Apart from the numerous goals he scored, the number of off-the-ball runs that Mane made, plus the fact that he used to counter-press the opposition in tandem with Roberto Firmino made things difficult for any opposition when tasked with facing Liverpool.
Without his services, pressing in the final third has gone down a notch, and Thierry Henry notes the same.
Speaking on CBS (h/t Liverpool Echo), the Frenchman claimed that the Reds miss this quality of the Senegalese and it is something much more worthwhile than some of the goals scored by him.
“Losing Sadio Mane, people are talking about his goals and what he used to do on the ball, but without the ball, the pressure that he used to put was second-to-none.”
Super Sadio missed at Liverpool
For anyone who used to watch Sadio at Liverpool, it is extremely easy to make sense of what Henry said. Mane used to press the fullback until an err and made sure to act on it as well. And now with Darwin still adjusting to the Premier League, the phase of transition will be understandably tough for the Reds.
It is rather a domino effect. If Liverpool press well in the final third, the chances of the ball making its way past the midfield are probably very low. Even in the case that it does, rock-solid defending at the back would make sure the Reds do not concede a goal.
But the volume of passes making their way through the Reds’ midfield leaving them completely exposed has arguably gone up a notch or two.
If the forwards would ensure that they apply pressure well enough, there is arguably less scope for the midfield to get beaten, which is what is happening throughout this season. The defence is left vulnerable multiple times, causing mayhem at the back.
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Our fans would attest to the fact that the Reds look off-pace this season at times – with no urgency at all at times. There can’t be a better example of this than the last 15 or so minutes against Brighton and Hove Albion in our 3-3 Premier League draw.
The brilliant Luis Diaz was not close enough to Leandro Trossard when tracking back, and he scored to share the spoils.
