The temptation was to think that Jürgen Klopp had committed £50m to secure a successor to Sadio Mané. Luis Díaz might be Liverpool’s speedy, goalscoring left winger for much of the 2020s, the replacement in waiting for Klopp’s first great signing at Anfield. But the Liverpool manager’s forward thinking is altogether different.
Mané turns 30 in April but Klopp feels his peak could lie in the future. Mané may have had a mixed 18 months, admitting last season was his worst before a burst of form in the autumn of 2021 gave way to his longest Liverpool goal drought, but rather than seeing it as a sign of decline, the German cites Senegal’s maiden Africa Cup of Nations triumph as a career-defining achievement as proof he can improve again.
