Former Premier League striker Noel Whelan has heaped praise on ‘unstoppable’ Liverpool attacker Sadio Mane.
The Senegal international was nominated for the PFA Player of the Year award recently, and BBC pundit Whelan has been bowled over by the 27-year-old.
“Mane terrorises defenders and makes them look very stupid,” he told Football Insider.
“He has been outstanding in recent months and scored so many crucial goals, including decisive first goals in matches. He must be a nightmare to play against.
“Not only does he have blistering speed and great movement and technique, but he is a strong boy, too, with a low centre of gravity. Defenders bounce off him. He can also turn them so quickly and leave them for dead. He’s a wonderful player who is in the form of his life. He’ll be unstoppable now for the rest of the season.”
OPINION
It’s extremely hard to disagree with anything Whelan says, here. Mane has been absolutely superb this season, really seeming to come into his own as a truly world class attacker. He’s always been a good player for Liverpool, but this campaign has seen him become indispensable to manager Jurgen Klopp. As Whelan says, he must be an absolute nightmare to play against. How do you defend him? He has frightening pace and skill, while possessing that unpredictable nature which makes it so difficult to know what he’s going to do. Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino have both been excellent this term, of course, but Mane has almost become the most important of the Reds attacking trio, certainly since the turn of the year at least. The club spent a lot of money on the Senegal star when they signed him from Southampton, but there’s no doubt now that that was very much money well spent.
