Liverpool star edges Reds teammate for 2019 African Player of the Year award
Liverpool's number 10 Sadio Mané has been voted as the 2019 CAF African Player of the Year, winning the award ahead of his Reds teammate Mohamed Salah and Manchester City's Riyad Mahrez.
Mané was in Egypt for the ceremony on Tuesday evening and collected the personal award after displaying excellent form for both Liverpool and Senegal over the past 12 months.
⚡️ S A D I O M A N E ⚡️ CAF African Player of the Year …
Liverpool 0-0 Manchester City: Mahrez miss costs Citizens rare Anfield win
Liverpool kept their unbeaten Premier League start intact, just, as Riyad Mahrez's late penalty miss cost Manchester City the chance for a first league win at Anfield since 2003.
A stalemate was the last thing expected between the country's two finest teams, but a mutual respect between Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola saw chances few and far between as the two teams suffocated each other in possession.
City had the better of the chances, culminating in Virgil van Dijk's challenge …
Faith and Football: Liverpool's Muslim Men
What do Mo Salah, Sadio Mané, Xherdan Shaqiri and Naby Keïta have in common? Besides their football club, of course. The answer I'm looking for though is their religion, Islam.
It's very rare in my writing that I stray away from tactics, statistics or areas in which I feel well-versed in, indeed, identity and faith are aspects rarely covered by sporting literature in general. Exceptions do stand out - take Muhammad Ali as a physical manifestation of a religiously-centred sportsman, …
Why one player alone can't replace Philippe Coutinho at Liverpool
Philippe Coutinho is leaving Liverpool. This won't come as a surprise to many as it was pretty clear since the player went on strike in the summer that it was only going to be a matter of time. Many supporters including myself are however extremely concerned about losing Coutinho this month. The Reds are in great form, 17 games unbeaten across all competitions, comfortably in the top 4 just 3 points behind second-place Manchester United and into the last 16 …
Riyad Mahrez: The Man To Reignite The 'Fab Four'?
It’s widely known that Riyad Mahrez wants to leave Leicester City, with the Algerian keen to test himself at a top Premier League club and make the next step in his career. There’s a wide berth of interest too, with all of the top-six linked to the winger at one time or the other.
With Philippe Coutinho jetting off to Barcelona, Liverpool could be in the market for a replacement this month. Thomas Lemar seems top of Klopp’s list according …
Mahrez On The Move: Should Liverpool Be On Alert?
Signing for a fee of £400,000 in 2014 from Le Havre, Riyad Mahrez played a key part in Leicester’s unexpected Premier League title win in 2015/16. The 26-year-old scored a total of 15 goals in the top flight that season, with another 10 goals and seven assists to his name this season. A campaign with two very different fortunes saw The Foxes finish 12th in the league but get further than any other English team in reaching the Champions League …
Liverpool Must Create A Shakespearean Tragedy
You all know the predictable narrative for Monday night. Your world-weary mates and naysaying Twitter gurus have already told you what will happen. Leicester City, following their remarkably cynical decision to axe Claudio Ranieri, will benefit from the 'new boss bounce,' or at least some sort of 'caretaker convalescence,' as the delightfully monikered Craig Shakespeare takes temporary control of first team affairs.
Liverpool, needing desperately to build upon the foundations of the win against Tottenham, will come immediately unstuck against …
Options a-plenty for Klopp in search for wide-man
Jurgen Klopp wants to buy a goal-scoring winger. He hasn't told me this personally, nor has he said it publicly, but based on his targeting of Leroy Sane, Ousmane Dembele and possibly Mario Gotze and Sadio Mane, it seems a certainty that Klopp wants to add more goals into the trio who play behind his lone striker.
Sane was the first player linked with the Reds after Klopp took over but very quickly, and rather strangely, his supposed asking price sky-rocketed …
FSG Have Failed to Deliver
If ever there was a headline to cause debate this is it. No doubt many will read the title of this piece and either strongly agree or disagree without reading the bloody article.
In the last few years I have strongly defended FSG and also given them heavy criticism. There are things they have done very well and things they have done very poorly. Let’s begin with the positives.
On 15th October 2010, much to all our relief, FSG, then …
The De-Evolution of Philippe Coutinho
I remember when we signed Philippe Coutinho from Inter Milan. I hadn't seen much of him other than a few games at Espanyol and the odd Inter game, one of which being their 4-3 victory over Spurs when Gareth Bale grabbed a hattrick. It was the Welshman that grabbed the headlines but I was quietly impressed by with the Inter number 29.
Such tight close control, an eye for a pass and the technique to execute it. He had that …