Jamie Carragher has claimed that Sadio Mane is the best wide player that Liverpool have had since John Barnes, but says that the Senegal international has gone “under the radar” this season.
Mane, 27, has been in sensational form for the Merseyside club this term, scoring 21 goals and supplying four assists in 42 appearances across all competitions.
It would be fair to say that without the ex-Southampton attacker, Manchester City might have the Premier League title wrapped up by now and Liverpool would be in the scrap for a top-four finish with the likes of Chelsea and Tottenham.
Reds legend Carragher has delivered a gushing verdict on Mane, saying that he is up there with one of the greatest players to ever grace Anfield’s turf.
“I think sometimes, he goes under the radar,” Carragher said on Monday Night Football this week [07:31pm].
“We’ve got [Mohamed] Salah. We’ve got [Virgil] van Dijk at the back and talk of the goalkeeper. The impact these players have had, and Liverpool are going for a first title in almost 30 years.
“He’s the best wide player Liverpool have had for 30 years.
“You have to go back to John Barnes for Liverpool to have a player like that, and that’s a massive [compliment].
“I think John Barnes is possibly in the best five or six players to ever play for Liverpool.”
OPINION
How has Mane gone under the radar? Everyone who knows anything about football will know that Mane has been ridiculously good for Liverpool this season and has without doubt been one of the best in the league. The Senegalese attacker has scored so many important goals for the Reds in their bid to win their first Premier League title, and he could yet win a league and Champions League double if he can continue his fine run of form in Jurgen Klopp’s side. If anything, Mane has been better than Salah this season. The Egypt international has gone off the boil once or twice, but Mane never has. He’s always been playing at 110 per cent, and to say that he has gone under the radar is completely wrong. Carragher may have worded what he was trying to say wrong. He might have meant to say that Mane isn’t getting the credit that he deserves. That might be the case, because we have ran out of superlatives to describe the jet-heeled winger.
