Sadio Mané

[RedReet]

Another move along the same lines ends with Mane swapping passes with Salah, before thumping a shot wide.





Mane’s ability to receive the ball with either foot on the turn means his team-mates are happy to play the ball to him in quite an aggressive manner.

Here’s a good example — Thiago, perhaps the Premier League’s best player at playing the right type of passes into team-mates, doesn’t play the ball directly to Mane’s feet here, but instead plays a very strong pass in front of him, that would allow Mane to turn and receive the ball across his body.

In this instance, Mane instead elects to retain possession and drag his opponent up the pitch. Again, this is the type of position you might expect to see Firmino dropping into. In some situations moving forward, when Firmino is unavailable, it might be Mane rather than Jota who makes sense through the middle.





The other key feature was how comfortable Mane was receiving the ball in situations where he needed to use his body.

Here, Salah chips the ball to him inside the box, up against Diego Llorente. Not only does Mane control the ball and spin instantly, he then gets himself into a position where Llorente isn’t sure whether he’ll cut inside onto his left, or go down the line on his right. Twice Mane stands him up, threatens to go inside and then darts down the outside, before chipping a cross into the six-yard box.

[RedReet]

Now an unusual example in a central position — Mane is again coming inside, Jota plays the ball to him and then makes an overlapping run to the left — but Mane’s concern is Kalvin Phillips. He receives the ball in a position to shield it from Phillips, uses his opponent as a way to turn quickly, almost exploding off him onto the ball, and then shoots with his left foot. It’s remarkable how far behind Phillips is left.







Here’s another situation where he uses his body well, receiving a ball around the corner from Salah and putting himself between Cooper and the ball — not actually touching it, but making sure he makes his run in a manner that means he’s fouled, earning Cooper a booking.





And here’s some more confident back-to-goal play, this time holding off the defender, dragging in another opponent and then backheeling the ball through to a team-mate.





Mane’s goal eventually arrived in stoppage time. It was another example of how defenders don’t know in which direction he’ll spin — when he receives this ball from Thiago, Cooper might have expected him to take the ball on the run, continue onto his left foot and shoot across the goalkeeper. No. Instead, Mane let the ball run across his body, controlled it with his left foot, then spun and finished with his right.

[RedReet]

That’s what makes Mane so difficult to play against — he can go either way. This goal looks tremendously simple, but it’s only possible because of the possibility of Mane doing the opposite, and the goal was reminiscent of one he scored against West Ham in February 2019, when he received a cut-back from James Milner and spun away from Issa Diop, who was almost left on the floor by the speed of Mane’s turn.





It would be wrong to call that goal a carbon copy, though. It’s not — it’s a mirror image, and that only hammers home the point.

[Buzzo]

Nice mate - thanks!

[RedReet]

The 10 image limit was a bit of a ballache, but hopefully it's readable.

[Buzzo]

The 10 image limit was a bit of a ballache, but hopefully it's readable.

I'll let you off this time, but if you could sort it out for next

[Buzzo]

That article wont be popular with the 'Mane in crisis' crowd, but it does back up that his overall play was really strong yesterday. If he'd banged in the 5 goals he should of it would be beyond argument.

[RedAndWhite]

That article wont be popular with the 'Mane in crisis' crowd, but it does back up that his overall play was really strong yesterday. If he'd banged in the 5 goals he should of it would be beyond argument.

We would like to think that but well this is the internet........

[RedReet]

That article wont be popular with the 'Mane in crisis' crowd, but it does back up that his overall play was really strong yesterday. If he'd banged in the 5 goals he should of it would be beyond argument.

What made me chuckle a bit was:

Ronaldo scores- Job done, can't argue with that.
Mane scores- Should have scored more, something not right with him.

Similarly, I'm sure there was a match thread post, fuming that we don't take our chances 'like United do' and that we were gonna draw the game. At that stage we were dominating, 1-0 up, also had a goal disallowed. At the same point in United game, they were 0-0, struggling to break Newcastle down until they got that lucky spill in injury time.

[BigChief]

Thanks Redreet, that's a well analysed article. Good to see they're not following an agenda but just the facts. As some of us said earlier, his final pass and shooting was a big let down yet didn't feel like he was playing as bad as last season.

There might be something not right with him, but there's a whole lot less wrong. And that's a big step in the right direction.

[Harv]

That article wont be popular with the 'Mane in crisis' crowd, but it does back up that his overall play was really strong yesterday. If he'd banged in the 5 goals he should of it would be beyond argument.

I cant really be arsed reading that all. I watched the game and saw a guy miss 6 extremely good chances. His movement was great, he was in fantastic positions over and over again after we'd won the ball back in midfield, his touch was poor a lot of the time though and he mi**** passes as a result when Mo and co were in very good areas, he was also very greedy. Which is not great when you're having a stinker in front of goal and others are lined up waiting to show him how to finish. Basically he played like Spain's favourite whipping boy Alvaro Morata. Lots of desire, great runs, but incredibly wasteful.

But then again Im a prick and don't abide by this modern-day "everyone wins a prize" mentality that everyone has. He had an ok game, he's lucky Leeds were **** and his missed chances didn't cost us. Doesn't deserve much praise though. It was a solid B- in my book.

[Shaggy]

Cheers for that RedReet - appreciate it. Great read. He's in a much better place than last season, I think.

[Buzzo]

I cant really be arsed reading that all. I watched the game and saw a guy miss 6 extremely good chances. His movement was great, he was in fantastic positions over and over again after we'd won the ball back in midfield, his touch was poor a lot of the time though and he mi**** passes as a result when Mo and co were in very good areas, he was also very greedy. Which is not great when you're having a stinker in front of goal and others are lined up waiting to show him how to finish. Basically he played like Spain's favourite whipping boy Alvaro Morata. Lots of desire, great runs, but incredibly wasteful.

But then again Im a prick and don't abide by this modern-day "everyone wins a prize" mentality that everyone has. He had an ok game, he's lucky Leeds were **** and his missed chances didn't cost us. Doesn't deserve much praise though. It was a solid B- in my book.

The articles not that long and has loads of pics so should be right up your street

I actually agree with your summary of his game completely, I was worried last season that his entire game had gone. I now don’t think that is the case, as you say his movement is great (his movement on the chance he blazed over from 2 yards was outstanding).

If he can become ruthless (like Mo) in his finishing then he remains a frightening prospect.

What I don’t agree with is that he is done

Now, give me my ****ing prize

[Harv]

I don't think he's done, there's still a useful player in there, but his poor touch and abysmal finishing seems to be getting worse by the season. At some stage you have to upgrade.

His pace also seems to be on the wane. Remember when he used to just blow past people and leave them standing still? What's happened to that??

[baitman]

dartitis ?

[ame="https://youtu.be/RImCB622SSc"]Use The Force, Luke. - YouTube[/ame]