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Fletcher: Mane profiting from Salah focus

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Image for Fletcher: Mane profiting from Salah focus

Former Premier League winner Darren Fletcher believes that oppositions teams’ focus on Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah has freed up teammate Sadio Mane to ‘come to the fore’

The Senegal international has arguably been the Reds’ best player so far this season, and Fletcher believes the entire Liverpool frontline is simply too much to deal with.

“I think we are seeing teams emphasising stopping Salah a little bit more, which has allowed Mane to come to the fore,” he told Sky Sports. “You can’t really focus on one because the other one will take advantage of it.

“You’ve got to be aware of all of them really, the front three are very dangerous the way they play. [Roberto] Firmino drops in, Mane and Salah dart into the spaces from wide areas. [Manchester] United will be well aware of that, if you want to win the game you have to stop them.”

OPINION

It’s so difficult to compare Salah and Mane and to try and gauge who has been better this season, but there’s no doubt that they are both – along with Firmino – an absolute nightmare for opposition defences to deal with. While Firmino might possibly be the most important of the three in terms of his overall impact on Jurgen Klopp’s team as a whole, there’s no doubt that Mane and Salah are the most deadly in front of goal. The former Southampton star hasn’t always been in the same category as the Egyptian in terms of goalscoring, but he certainly is now. The statistics from this season tell us as much. As per WhoScored.com, the Senegal star has the most Premier League goals of the two with five, but less assists with one compared to Salah’s three. Interestingly, that’s despite Salah taking more shots per game than Mane on average, 3.3 against 2.4. The fact that teams are fouling Mane more regularly than Salah perhaps goes against Fletcher’s assessment, though, showing that defences are desperate to tackle the 27-year-old out of games.

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