Peter Krawietz has voiced huge praise for Senegal superstar Sadio Mane with the Liverpool assistant manager labelling the former Saints man to be one of the best signings made at Anfield.
Mane completed five years in the Liverpool shirt on June 28 and in an interview to the club’s official website, Krawietz detailed Mane’s journey from a new boy on Merseyside into one of the most fearsome forwards.
“I believe Jurgen feels that as a manager it was one of his biggest mistakes not to sign him for Borussia Dortmund! Then of course we had him always in our minds, we knew how unbelievable he can be.
“We followed his development at Southampton as well and he performed already on this higher level, in the Premier League, and this was in the end a no-brainer opportunity to bring this player to our squad.
“That was one of our golden decisions, I would say. We were absolutely right with our first impression. At the same time, we were surprised with how well he developed during his time in Liverpool.
“His qualities are unique. Sadio is a player with every, every, every possibility in attacking: his one-v-one skills, his speed, left or right, his finishing. His ability to score goals with his head as well is unbelievable – to jump as high as he is able to do, I never saw that before.
“As well, his readiness and ability in terms of defending; whatever you want from him he is able to learn very, very, very quick and has this effort he puts in for the team in defending situations as well. He leads by example, he leads by quality, he leads by his attitude.”
“You can see the fire which is burning inside him on the pitch and a lot of opponents try to provoke him.
“This is something that he learned during the years as well, to stay calm and at the same time not to lose his fire and his will and his ambition to play successful football and to give the opponent no possibility to bring him out of the middle of his brain, to disturb his concentration or his focus.
“This is something that he improved so massively and is a clear sign of his personality and his development to be one of the top three players in the world in his position as a winger.”
With 97 goals in 218 outings across all competitions, Mane has made his mark for the Merseysiders and his trophy haul boasts of the Premier League, Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup and UEFA Super Cup, with the Senegesle international a part of the star-studded frontline alongside Mohammad Salah and Roberto Firmino.
Mane endured a rather underwhelming season by his standards last time around but the 29-year-old recovered in time for the finish of the Premier League campaign as he played a major role in helping Liverpool to the third-place finish in the standings which assures them of a place amongst Europe’s elite in the Champions League.
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