Mark Warburton last night says he expected to have his three AFCON available for their match on Sunday, one is from Senegal so I’m assuming that confirms Mane isn’t going until after Chelsea as well.
He is my favorite player so it really pains me to see him so out of sorts. It’s not just last night’s game/miss, he has been way off his best for some time.
In the last couple of matches, he looked very dangerous to me, yesterday not so but he is much better this season than he was last.
Bad miss. The penalty and that miss were key moments for us. Mane from 2 years ago would’ve probably burried that with his eyes closed.
That miss last night was almost inexplicable. He took it beautifully in his stride , the ball sat up lovely , Schmeichel was already going to ground. Either side or just a little dink and it’s in but instead he scoops it over the bar. He has been pretty good this season (most of the time) , but the number of times he fluffs relatively easy chances at crucial times in games really is something he has to address , as it detracts badly from his overall contribution , and costs us dearly. After that miss I never thought for one minute we were likely to get anything from the game , and seemingly neither did the players.
He’s gone 800+ minutes without a goal, it’s not good enough. If he doesn’t sort it out I’d expect he might be the one sold, it’s happening with 1 of the front 3.
Until that point I thought we would win and it was only a matter of time before we scored, but after that miss I had a horrible feeling it wasn’t going to happen. It drains confidence for the whole team when chances like that are missed and gives the opposition a boost. Leicester must have started to believe at that point and then it didn’t matter that they’d played City two days before. They were running on adrenaline.
I wouldn’t agree that Sadio has generally been good this season. He’s had some good performances but he’s driving me mad with poor first touches and slowing down our attacks. His finishing has been diabolical lately and he’s trying too hard which means his decision making is poor. Better than last season for sure but a long way below the standards of two seasons ago.
I much prefer angry Mane. That smile after missing a sitter shit does my fucking head in. Needs to get his head in the game.
True, I thought the same last night. It’s not about smiling, but about being more brave. Being physically brave is not as being technically or tactically brave. I much prefer the slightly more angry Mane (but without the crazy challenges when he risks by raising his boot up), being an absolute nightmare to play against. Hopefully he can find that level soon, perhaps resets himself after AFCON.
It was a bad miss, and his finishing has deserted him again…
but I’m not having the idea that he’s been shite this season. He’s not at his very best, but he’s not playing at the level he ended last season on either. Big overreaction from last night, he’s had a lot of good games recently.
I saw stats last night that show he averages 7-8 goals in the first half of the season. He’s on 7 now.
If you look back at some of our fixtures in the last two months - Newcastle, Tottenham, Everton, Atletico, Southampton, Milan, Arsenal…lots of good performances in there from him.
Frustrating that he misses those ‘sitters’ however every match he puts in a shift and helps prevent teams attacking down our left side. Picks the ball up often and I don’t remember a player who can turn so easily back to goal when he recieves the ball and in an instant facing goal and putting the pressure on, how do you defend against that?
Instead of concentrating on our right hand side and fucking it up we should concentrate on supporting Mané quicker so that his turn amounts to more!
Saw some stats yesterday:
0 key passes against Leicester, 1 key pass against Tottenham, 1 key pass against Newcastle, 19 successful passes in 88 minutes against Villa. The last game where he had 3 successful dribbles was against Arsenal and also the last game where he had 5+ dribble attempts.
What’s this guy talking about? 
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