Sadio Mané, who leads Liverpool in scoring this season, was recently called out by a teammate for not passing enough.
“Something that Sadio and Mo (Salah) have in common is that they don’t pass us the ball much,” Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain said, possibly joking but with a sting of truth. “They like shooting a lot!”
While Mané has been his team’s most prolific forward this season, calling him a shoot-first forward is a bit of a disservice to one of the more well-rounded players on the entire Liverpool squad.
As if to prove this point, Mané provided two brilliant assists (and scored a goal) in Liverpool’s 5-2 crushing of archrival Everton in the Merseyside Derby on Wednesday at Anfield.
Liverpool ran rampant going forward with Mané in the middle of almost every attack. While the Reds were susceptible at the back, so superior was their offense that it didn’t matter.
Jurgen Klopp’s side took the lead in less than six minutes on Wednesday. Divock Origi, whose second goal was a thing of beauty, netted his first in relatively simple fashion. But the pass from Mané to set up the finish was the result of a player in his prime making an inch-perfect through ball to eliminate three defenders and the on-rushing goalkeeper.
About 10 minutes later, Mané was setting up a second for the home side.
This time starting closer to the box, the No. 10 slid inside before slotting a wonderful ball for Xherdan Shaqiri to run onto and poke home.
Liverpool double their advantage through Xherdan Shaqiri!
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) December 4, 2019
Michael Keane pulled one back for Everton in the 21st minute before Origi netted this incredible goal 10 minutes later.
Mané then struck again, this time doing the finishing.
The camera angle on this Liverpool goal pic.twitter.com/V9neD5zTQG
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) December 4, 2019
The goal gave Mané nine in the Premier League and 13 in all competitions this season. He also has seven assists across competitions, only trailing Roberto Firmino for tops on the team.
Not bad for someone who doesn’t pass his teammates the ball, if the Ox is to be believed.
Richarlison scored right before halftime to make it 4-2, and one goal came through in the second, a 90th-minute strike from Georginio Wijnaldum.
Despite his strong performance, Mané actually could’ve finished better, missing two or three chances you really expect him to put away. With about 10 minutes to play, he brought a longball down brilliantly with only the keeper to beat only to shoot wide.
But when you play two passes as perfectly as he did in the first half, Liverpool fans will happily take their three-goal victory, sending Everton even further into the relegation battle, 29 points behind the Reds.
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