Ex-player: Sadio MANÉ

Mane is also close to breaking the national scoring record too. I doubt he would be keen to give up opportunities to break that.

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Absolutely this too. He has tremendous pride playing for his country.

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They are, but it could also mean risk losing a key player for the long-term.

They don’t play any competitive game till AFCON in January.

He has plenty of games to do that.

I’m not talking from Liverpool perspective, it seemed meaningless to field your key players for a pointless game. On the other hand, these games would have been perfect to give minutes to fringe players and develop alternative for emergency situations.

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But you are talking from a Liverpool perspective. There are still benefits for the national team in choosing these players whether the result was important or not.

You play key players in friendlies ahead of key international tournaments to improve their readiness (unless you are England).

What readiness, Senegal don’t have any games till January. The preparedness from these two games will last the next two months??? I think the benefits are financial; sponsorship clauses, TV and gate revenues.

Obviously, the national federation will be keen to maximise the financial benefits - they probably have limited opportunities to raise funds via other ways.

However, there are clearly other drivers here also in play. How often do these teams see their best players? How often do they play together? Its important that they get that opportunity - I use England as a counter example because they have a stupid habit of entering the major tournaments playing systems that have little experience with or using players that have rarely had much playing time as a unit in the run up to the major events. AFCON may be over two months away, but even some playing time together will help those players retain some ‘playing knowledge’ together, and continue to build a unifying bond. It also helps their manager gain a better understanding of these players.

Then there are the fans who will rarely have the opportunity to see these players live in their own country as they play domestic football in other countries. Important not just for fans, but the very communities that these players hail from - that means a lot to those communities but also to the players themselves who feels a responsibility to represent those local areas. Mane didn’t fund the building of hospitals for some nebulous reason like minimising taxes, he did it to improve the lives of people.

I can understand criticism of the English national team and our own federation, but less of of a country like Senegal - especially when Mane usually comes back in a reasonable condition. I would also be more understanding of the criticism if we saw our club actually do a preseason over there - or at least invite teams from the likes of Senegal, Egypt, Guinea (maybe Cameroon too?) to play at Anfield.

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Just hope he flies straight back and is fit by the Arsenal match.

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Coach suggests it was a precaution and not serious.

Hopefully he is more reliable than the idiot who coaches the U21 for England

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Imagine Mane gets an injury now that keeps him out of the AFCON and he is fit just as Salah goes…

I think Senegal still take him if that is a realistic scenario

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Yeah they’d play him with one leg actually.

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AFCON is in January, do you wish him out injured for two months?

It was a joke…

Sadio Mane will return to Liverpool after having X-rays on a rib injury he sustained on international duty with Senegal.

Full story :point_down:

#bbcfootball #LFC

Just wow. 😵‍💫😞

The situation could be anything mind after Jones and the U21s last time I think we only know when Klopp does his PC.

Though with us it’s usually bad.

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Watched the Portugal match, hating the result :innocent: but I was so relieved when Kota walked off the pitch after 80 minutes in one piece.

:thinking:

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Dutch for jota

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