There’s been plenty of change at Liverpool in recent years.
Indeed, the Champions League winning team of 2019 has been slowly but surely disassembled, and now, only a few remain from that squad.
The likes of Roberto Firmino, Jordan Henderson and Fabinho have all moved on, while the biggest casualty from that squad may well have been Sadio Mane.
The Senegalese star left Anfield last year for Bayern Munich, and many believe that the Reds’ dip last season may have been a direct result of Mane’s departure.
Speaking on the BBC Match of the Day Top 10 Africa Podcast, Efan Ekoku has been discussing Mane and his time at Liverpool, and he suggested that Mane was actually a better player for the Reds than Mohamed Salah was, claiming that many within the game agree with that sentiment too.
Mane better than Salah
Ekoku shared his verdict on the winger.
“He surprised almost everybody, he looked a good player then at Southampton, but did anyone have Mane in the top five African players in the world at that time? Nobody would say yes,’ Ekoku said.
“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 Salah, but they sold their best player, nobody disagrees with that.”
Not anymore
This is an argument that you probably could’ve made a few years ago, but it is increasingly tough to make this point these days.
Salah remains one of the very best players in the Premier League to this day, while Mane struggled at Bayern Munich and was duly shipped off to Saudi Arabia after just one season in Germany.
In their primes, this was a closely fought battle, but now, Salah is clearly some way ahead of Mane.
