Former Liverpool forward Sadio Mane was officially announced as a Bayern Munich player yesterday after weeks of speculation.
The Senegalese international ranked 14th on the Reds top scorers list with 120 goals in 269 matches and departs for an initial fee of around £27m.
Mane will be sorely missed at Anfield, but with the arrivals of Darwin Nunez and Fabio Carvalho who are set to be deployed in the forward positions, his load may be lightened a little.
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Ex-Reds winger Stewart Downing expressed his views to The i about Mane, and how Liverpool’s existing and future forward line could cope without him.
“I’m surprised to be honest. Mane’s my favourite player so I’m disappointed to see him leave,” Downing said.
“He’s everything that Jurgen Klopp likes in a player: his attitude, he’s a proper team player, works hard, scores goals and is an all-round top player.”
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“Losing big players is always disappointing but over the years Liverpool have done that and they went from strength to strength from then,” Downing says.
“Klopp’s recruitment has been unbelievable. People were saying they paid a lot of money for Mo Salah at the time but looking at it now it was a snip.
Mane was the same, Diogo Jota has come in and done an exceptional job. So you can’t really question him.”
Klopp has always lost huge players during his career and gone on to more success - after losing Nuri Sahin he replaced him with Ilkay Gundogan at Borussia Dortmund, and in a similar vein he did the same with Shinji Kagawa and Marco Reus.
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At Liverpool similar situations can be comparable in the departures of Phillippe Coutinho and Gini Wijnaldum.
Downing believes this resilience should stand the Reds in good stead going into next year without Mane.
“Losing big players is always disappointing but over the years Liverpool have done that and they went from strength to strength from then,” Downing says.
“Klopp’s recruitment has been unbelievable. People were saying they paid a lot of money for Salah at the time but looking at it now it was a snip.
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Mane was the same, Jota has come in and done an exceptional job. So you can’t really question him.”
With Luis Diaz arriving on the left and Nunez through the middle, it looks like a new beginning for the Reds attacking output - but the elder influence of Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino will also have a huge impact.
Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: Liverpool, Sadio Mane, Bayern Munich