Liverpool have enjoyed their best-ever start to a domestic campaign. The champions of Europe and the Premier League leaders have recorded 49 points from a possible 51 this season to amass a gargantuan 10 point lead at the league summit.
The Reds have won 16 consecutive home league matches and are unbeaten in their last 24 games in all competitions whilst also making history after becoming world champions for the first time in the club’s illustrious 127-year history.
Jurgen Klopp’s team also had seven members of their Champions League-winning squad nominated for the 2019 Ballon d’Or. That makes the notion of having to pick a standout player so far this season an almost impossible task.
However, the man leading the way at the half-way mark is none other than Sadio Mane. The Senegalese ace has been Liverpool’s main man this season since helping guide the club to their sixth European Cup triumph.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 05: (THE SUN OUT, THE SUN ON SUDNAY OUT) Sadio Mane of Liverpool celebrating after scoring the opening goal during the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Leicester City at Anfield on October 05, 2019 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. (Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
With 13 goals and nine assists so far, no other Reds player has contributed more goals than Mane. The former Southampton star has more goals than anyone else at the club for 2019 and the importance of his goals are just as impressive as the amount.
Mane has scored crucial goals against both Liverpool’s title rivals Leicester and Manchester City this season. His man-of-the-match performance against Everton in December was one of the great Anfield displays of all time whilst his last-minute winner against Aston Villa is perhaps the team’s most significant goal so far this campaign.
BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 02: Sadio Mane of Liverpool celebrates with teammates after scoring his team’s second goal during the Premier League match between Aston Villa and Liverpool FC at Villa Park on November 02, 2019 in Birmingham, United Kingdom. (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Having shared the limelight for so long behind fellow front-three members Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino, Mane is finally shining brightest of the trio. Following a relentless schedule for both club and country since the summer of 2017, Mane somehow still appears to be getting stronger.
Having contributed a goal ever 221 minutes in the 2017/18 season, the former RB Salzburg forward was able to deduce that to 140 in 2018/19 and 137 so far this season.
The Senegal international is currently operating at the peak of his powers. Maybe Lionel Messi had a point when he cast his vote for Mane to win FIFA’s World Player of the Year.