Sadio Mane
Jurgen Klopp says Sadio Mane is back to his best at Liverpool. Mane has scored eight times this season including the 2-0 win over Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday evening. Klopp believes his No.10 is “in a top moment” and thinks that was underlined by the nature of his goal in that victory against Atletico, one that secured a place in the 16 of Europe’s premier competition.
Jurgen Klopp said: “He is in top shape and in a top moment. I think his goal on Wednesday, and his impact for the goal, was maybe under-rated or under-estimated. It would never have been a chance if Sadio had not got rid of four or five Atletico players, and we all know how Atletico played. Getting through that stalemate without going down, staying on his feet, passing the ball to the outside and immediately seeing the opportunity. That sums up the shape that Sadio is in at the moment, which is pretty good. I’m really, really happy for him. I didn’t see [his form] that critically last year, but if he was not happy then that’s fine. And if he wants to improve that’s fine. If David Moyes says he can improve after 999 games then we can do that as well and that is what we are working on. Sadio as well. I am really happy about the shape at the moment.”
Klopp’s side are currently unbeaten in 25 games, dating back to March, and have the chance to set a new club record against West Ham on Sunday afternoon. The Liverpool manager, though, is uninterested with such accolades and says they are merely a by-product of wanting to win each game as it comes.
Jurgen Klopp added: “I can not compare these times because even though I watched football at that time as a kid, I had no idea about what football was exactly in that time, to be honest. But it was for sure not easy in the Shankly and Paisley times to win football games. Whatever it is, there was a specific level for all footballers and all teams and one team had to overcome it. And to do that as regularly as Bob’s teams did, that makes them all time greats. No doubt about that. But why should we compare that [era]? No, we don’t see ourselves as in any kind of comparison with them. We try to do what is possible now. And I don’t know what is possible. We don’t look at what is possible, and then decide ‘oh it could be difficult’ then we stop. No. If we see it is possible but difficult, then the fun part starts really. Then we want to have it with all we have. That’s exactly how our journey so far has worked out. We had a look at what can be achieved, where can we go, and if we saw we can go there, if we got there, then we wanted immediately to make the next step as well. That is what we are doing now. In this league we are now in November – we all know that the decisive parts are coming up now. We never said any different. We said in the first 10 games or so – and all the time actually – you have to create a basis for the rest of the season and that is what we did so far. It is an absolutely OK basis. It is not more, not less. If we can break records on the way…we were never keen to do so, that is why it happened from time to time, I think. I think this team has set a few records already, which nobody reached in the 100-odd years of the club’s history, I don’t know which ones exactly, but that is the situation. We are not really focused on records, but if it happens then it is obviously a good sign because [it means] we are winning football games, and that is what we are interested in. But we don’t go for a record at West Ham, we go for three points – which is already difficult enough.”
