Sadio Mané

[labourRed]

Nor am I tbh, i'd take this level if he can stay fit for the rest of the season.

[RedReet]

Well let's not be silly and try to pretend that he isn't. We can all see it with our eyes.

On pitch time he's basically averaging a goal contribution per game in all competitions. To put into context that's better than:

Burnley
Palace
Huddersfield
Newcastle
Brighton
Swansea
Southampton
West Brom

Everton, Bournemouth and Stoke aren't faring much better either.

Nobody is saying that he is at his best, clearly he isn't, but if you are going to use stats to emphasise how bad he is, they may as well be accurate.

[Kenneth]

Sure, but he's playing in an attacking side who create lots of chances / passes around the box, much more than Everton. He is seeing a lot of the ball and has given us a couple of good finishes and touches, but his overall contribution has been worrying poor. His control of the ball is nothing like it was last season, and neither is his shooting.

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

Swapping wings is one thing, have a first touch like a tight trampoline is another.

He was are best player last season, well was until Phil put in a good last part of the season. But at one time we couldn't buy a win without him. Is it just that Salah has come in and shown us what a real top class wide player is? His numbers are fairly similar to last season aren't they? His general play does seem to have fallen off a cliff though.

[RedReet]

Sure, but he's playing in an attacking side who create lots of chances / passes around the box, much more than Everton. He is seeing a lot of the ball and has given us a couple of good finishes and touches, but his overall contribution has been worrying poor. His control of the ball is nothing like it was last season, and neither is his shooting.

Ok, if creating/scoring more goals than an entire squad isn't impressive enough, he's creating and scoring more than the better version of himself last year when he was one of the best players in the league.

Something's not right with him at the minute, whether it be fitness or confidence, but as long as he's contributing, it's not that big of an issue. I'd rather he play poor and help us score than be brilliant with no end product.

[Phoenix07]

I thought he got into some good positions last night, and clearly vacated the left flank, which Robertson dominated, to take up central positions.

[labourRed]

Ok, if creating/scoring more goals than an entire squad isn't impressive enough, he's creating and scoring more than the better version of himself last year when he was one of the best players in the league.

Something's not right with him at the minute, whether it be fitness or confidence, but as long as he's contributing, it's not that big of an issue. I'd rather he play poor and help us score than be brilliant with no end product.

I don't think cherry picking stats is helpful when we can all see that he's nowhere near his potential best.

However, you have a point about contributing, these are after all game-changing stats, and while you have a player that's industrious and looks dangerous in Nathan Dyer, he hasn't provided a goal or an assist in 14 prem games (i know different team but still) i know where you're coming from.

And he's not just being a flat track bully either, crucial contributions against Burnley and City. Like i said, i'm not bothered by his dip in form.

[Snigger]

every cloud.... should put Barca and Real off a summer bid.

[SB]

every cloud.... should put Barca and Real off a summer bid.

That

[Nicey]

Wonder if playing on the left is also affecting him heavily, that said his touch is horrible at the moment, but he is showing glimpses of mental sharpness again, his knock on for one of the goals was sublime.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Wonder if playing on the left is also affecting him heavily, that said his touch is horrible at the moment, but he is showing glimpses of mental sharpness again, his knock on for one of the goals was sublime.

Really don't get why playing on the left would affect him given he has played as a left winger more often throughout his career than he has played as a right winger.

He played one season with us on the right wing, and had one of his seasons at Southampton where he played mostly as a right winger.

Pretty much the rest of his career time with us, Southampton, and Red Bull has been as a left winger with a smattering of games as a second striker.


My own guess is that it is a mixture of confidence or fitness/injury issues, rather than a positional issue. Think it is a sign of how good he is though that he is still racking up respectable goal/assist stats despite not playing as well as we have seen him do in the past.

[danperkins]

He's got 6 goals and 5 Assists in 16 Pl starts. 3 goals and 1 assist in 4 CL starts.

I know the stats mate but I think we can all see that he is way below what he can do.

He is a brilliant player that is really struggling and lately you can see the frustration and second guessing himself. I'm just hoping he can pull himself out of it on that left side and get back to his best.

On his day he is unplayable, just need him to get that confidence back & hopefully sooner rather than later.

[The_weatherman]

I think he had off periods at Southampton too, I'm not overly worried, even in his bad patch he is contributing. Hopefully he'll pick up form soon for the end race.

[Kenneth]

'He's contributing' isn't very convincing, if he was on the bench then someone else would be contributing instead.

[Doc_Piptorious]

'He's contributing' isn't very convincing, if he was on the bench then someone else would be contributing instead.

Looking at our back ups it is difficult to see who that would be.


Lallana is/was injured. Chamberlain was/is getting used to being here. Coutinho is gone so now we need someone to be contributing to what he brought to the team.


Mane is not playing as well as he can, but in terms of goals and assists he is contributing at a healthy enough rate. Our back up players would need to contribute at a rate most, if not all, of them never have in their overall careers to date in order.


Maybe one of our back ups would all of a sudden up their game and contribute more than Mane currently is to the team, but to assume one of them simply would is to assume they would start playing at career best levels should they get to replace Mane.


I think the drop off in quality for cover for our attacking players, especially the wide players, is quite big and possibly so big at present that one of our starters playing poorly is most likely on par or better than the potential cover.