West Ham United striker Michail Antonio believes Sadio Mané was Liverpool’s best player last season. The Reds sold him this summer, of course.
The big exit at Liverpool this summer was undoubtedly Sadio Mané. In fact, he’s the biggest exit the Reds have seen in quite some time – arguably since Luis Suarez in 2014.
That’s the kind of impact Mané had at Liverpool. He was in many ways the catalyst for the success under Jurgen Klopp as the first big signing. The Senegal star arrived from Southampton and immediately transformed the Reds’ attack.
Every major trophy followed, of course, with Mané playing a key role. But was he even more than that? Was Mané actually Liverpool’s best player?
West Ham’s Michail Antonio believes so.
“I want to know, how do you feel about losing Mané?” he asked Liverpool fan, Rickie Haywood Williams, on his podcast. “In my eyes, I’m going to say this, Mané was your best player. Overall, he was your best player!”
Sadio Mané, Liverpool’s best player
There is a very good argument that Mané was Liverpool’s best player over the second half of last season. He was sensational once he moved to a central role, playing arguably the best football of his career.
But the Reds overall best? We can’t go along with that. A lot of people appear to forget just how good Mohamed Salah was before January last year. There was a very good argument that he was the outright best in the world.
He was so good, in fact, that his struggles post-AFCON didn’t stop Salah from winning both the Premier League Golden Boot and the Playmaker award. As good as Mané was, he couldn’t compete on that level.
We do see where Antonio is coming from, though. To end the season, Mané probably was the best player at Liverpool and he’ll be a massive miss. Fortunately, there’s enough talent at the club right now that three or four players can step up to take that title for themselves this year.
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