What an incredible, unclassifiable, idiosyncratic player! You can't quite assign him to a specific role or position – he's not quite a striker, not a winger, not a playmaker, what exactly is he? After the double in Munich it's 52 goals and 20 assists in 110 games for Liverpool, 138 career goals (including national team). 33 of the LFC goals were scored with the right foot, 13 with left and 6 were headers (3 of the headers came in the last 4 games – something's up!). Lion's share of his goals come from finishes inside the area; the biggest category is one-touch finishes and second biggest is 2-3 touches after receiving the ball inside the box. All other types of goals, such as cutting in from the wing or long-range shots, are just a handful. Based on the types of goals he scores, you could call him a fox in a box, but he actually spends the majority of the game outside of it:
(2017-18 season heatmap)
Much like his front-three partners Firmino and Salah, Sadio is a dual-role player. In his usual position on the left wing, he defends like a proper winger, tracking all the way back to our penalty area when needed and helping out Robbo. In the build-up phase he operates like a winger or a secondary playmaker. But when it comes to attacking directly, there is a huge difference between Mane and an orthodox goal-scoring wing-forward like, say, Neymar or Robben. Mane actually doesn't create most of his scoring chances for himself – instead he looks to make a run into the box and get on the end of a pass there. In other words, in the attacking phase he turns from a winger to a centre-forward.
Whenever he's allowed to receive the ball in the penalty area, I think he is as deadly a finisher as any "pure" goal-scorer in the Premier League and during his recent scoring run more and more of his teammates' efforts are now focused on setting up chances for him. Even Salah is turning provider – perhaps reluctantly, but as long as Mane is scoring it's great for Mo as it will take away the defenders' focus from him. Sadio is now only 1 goal behind Mo in all competitions this season and is on the verge of his second consecutive 20 goal season at LFC. In other words, we've got (another) 20+ goal striker – who also happens to play on the wing.
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