Staff at Liverpool think they’re signing a player who’s just like Sadio Mane

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Staff at Liverpool believe new signing Alexis Mac Allister has many similarities to Reds legend Sadio Mane.

Mac Allister completed his move to Anfield earlier this week, taking Mane’s old No.10 shirt. And according to The Athletic, it’s a signing Liverpool are very happy with indeed.

They claim that ‘figures’ at the club see ‘parallels’ between the Argentine’s arrival, and Sadio’s back in 2016.

Then, just as now, Liverpool weren’t able to offer Champions League football to their new man. Despite that, just like Mane, Mac Allister’s heart was reportedly ‘set on playing for Klopp.’

Both players seemingly came to fire the Reds back to the top under Klopp’s guidance. Mane succeeded, and then some. Let’s hope Alexis can do the same.

Mac Allister takes on Mane legacy

Clearly in terms of playing style, there’s absolutely no similarity between Mane and Mac Allister. None at all. Mane was a goal-scoring wide forward, Mac Allister a jack-of-all-trades midfield technician. Chalk and cheese.

But beyond that, you can kind of see what these sources at Anfield are getting at.

Mane’s stock wasn’t perhaps as high as Mac Allister’s is currently when he joined. The World Cup winner is coming off the back of a super campaign, and has been hailed as an ‘outstanding’ footballer. but he’s spoken openly of how he rejected Manchester United to join Liverpool.

Having scored 11 Premier League goals during the 2015/16 season, the then 24-year-old looked primed to take the next step in his career.

Conceivably, that could easily have been at a Champions League side. But he believed in the project Klopp was building at Liverpool and became the manager’s first great signing at the club.

Fast forward seven years, and Mac Allister too could have joined pretty much any club in Europe had he wanted to. For the £35m he’s reportedly signed for [The Guardian], he’d be a bargain for anyone.

Thankfully though, the Argentine only had eyes for Klopp and Liverpool. As the Reds look to clamber back to the European summit next year, perhaps he could be the symbol that Mane turned himself into back in 2017. Leading the club into a new period of success. That would be a fitting legacy for Sadio’s old number.