There’s a decent article in the Guardian today about wantaway striker Sadio Mané, assessing the exploits of our other defectors.
What do we reckon?
A couple of hours before Alex Tettey condemned Southampton to a seventh defeat in their past nine matches, Liverpool lost 2-0 at West Ham United and if Nathaniel Clyne can be excused for losing out in the air to Michail Antonio and Andy Carroll for the goals, then Dejan Lovren deserves criticism for failing to respond to West Ham’s ploy of sending physically imposing attackers to pressure a small full-back. Clyne has been the best of the four players Liverpool have signed from Southampton since 2014 but the £20m they splurged on Lovren was hefty for a centre-back who regularly fails to dominate forwards. Adam Lallana started on the bench at Upton Park and the midfielder has failed to score in the league this season.
There have been more misses than hits overall. Rickie Lambert plays for West Bromwich Albion now, his year at Anfield an anomaly on his CV. Morgan Schneiderlin is yet to convince fully that he belongs at United, for all his impressive shielding of their defence. Calum Chambers still has a lot to learn at Arsenal and only Luke Shaw was looking like a guaranteed success before Unitedlost him to a broken ankle in September.
It can be dangerous to assume that what works in a smaller side is instantly transferable to a less forgiving environment where off days are harder to accept.
Convince him to stay until the summer.
Make him sit in the stands until the end of his contract.
Flog him off this window if the price is right. Too much trouble.
For what it’s worth, that front page is bollocks. They mistranslated a Mirror article in which Sadio said he didn’t want to stay beyond his current contract, claiming that he means he’s going this window.
Anyway, after the supposed Man Utd bid was rejected Mane was said to be happy to stay here until the Summer and then to be allowed to go if another bid comes in for him.
So I reckon he’ll have to start playing proper like
SWF getting their knickers in a huge twist over this misleading bollocks front page, even after they have agreed it is misleading bollocks. “Lucky to be here” and “sell the lazy useless xxxx” are among my favourites.
I like Sadio, he was first labelled shit for 6 months, then great then a god but the guardian does have a point that his goal return is low (good job they don’t analyse tadic).
I’d love to keep him but if we were to sell him Jan usually means more inflated fee’s for the desperate and we could put schlong in there instead.
If RK is happy with his reaction then I am. If he is disrupting the togetherness in the team, that we have had for the last 7/8 years then get rid, as togetherness is very important part of a winning team and could explain the recent mini slump!
His current form is poor, he looks worth a tenner.
And don’t start telling me about his great runs off the ball when we don’t have possession or any of that bollocks, his passing is sloppy, he doesn’t attack donkey-like defenders, and his finishing is not that of a £30m player.