It was, Jurgen Klopp said at the time, one of the best halves his Liverpool team had ever played. Sadio Mane was arguably the best player in it, too. He was the scorer of two goals, one the product of pressing, the second with a crisp volley. They went in at half-time 3-0 up on Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final. That victory is a reason why they reconvene with the Premier League champions in Saturday’s Community Shield.
Mane will not be there. It will be Liverpool’s first competitive game without the Senegalese on their books; in most of those matches, he was on the pitch. Life after Mane starts now and City, against whom he scored four goals last season, may have celebrated his move to Bayern Munich more than most outside Bavaria. That Zack Steffen, the goalkeeper whose pocket Mane picked for his first goal at Wembley, is also gone - exiled on loan to Middlesbrough - does not feel a coincidence but for Liverpool, a dynamic will be different.
