'I thought Sadio Mane was horrendous before he reached very top with Liverpool'
Ex-Southampton striker Shane Long has admitted to thinking Sadio Mane was ‘horrendous’ when he arrived in the Premier League.
Mane first arrived on English shores when he joined the Saints in 2014 from Red Bull Salzburg. He scored 25 goals in 75 appearances across all competitions for the south coast club, alerting him to Liverpool.
His move to Anfield was completed in the summer of 2016, and he went on to hit new heights under Jurgen Klopp. Alongside Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah, he formed an attacking trio that defined the German’s spell in charge of the Reds, helping them to become champions of Europe, the world, and of course the Premier League.
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After 269 games and 120 goals, Mane left Liverpool in 2022 with his status as one of the club’s greatest modern players secured. His former teammates back at Southampton though might not have expected him to hit such heights at first.
"When Sadio first came with first team, he was horrendous," Long, who spent eight years at Southampton between 2014 and 2022, told Ben Foster’s ‘Fozcast’. "Obviously, he wasn’t horrendous, I take that back but he had these moments where you thought ‘ooh he’s got something here’. You used to kick him and hurt yourself, he had that strength about him.
"He could take on everybody and then kick it into Row Z trying to cross the ball, he could run it off the pitch. But then Koeman managed to coach him and train him and he just hit this run of form which made you think this guy could go to the very top."
Since leaving Liverpool in 2022, things haven’t quite gone to plan for Mane. He lasted just one season with Bayern Munich before being offloaded by the German giant, and subsequently made the move to Saudi Arabia.
He joined Cristiano Ronaldo at Al Nassr, and marked his first season with the club with 19 goals in 50 appearances. He’s yet to get off the mark this term though after six games, having been linked with another transfer during the summer.
Liverpool.com says: Mane was always one of the standout stars for what was a decent Southampton side at the time. Seeing him make the move to Liverpool was not really a surprise – after all, he was far from the first player to make that move, or the last for that matter.
What was perhaps a surprise though was just how well he did at Liverpool. As good as he looked at Southampton, few could have expected him to hit the heights that he did at Anfield.
It’s just a shame that he felt the need to move on when he did. In hindsight, it was perhaps the right move from Liverpool to offload him given he hasn’t looked the same player since then, but Mane is just one of many players who perhaps didn’t realize how good he had it at Anfield.