Shane Long explains how ex-Liverpool star Sadio Mane achieved £34m move despite 'horrendous' start
Liverpool FC news: The former Golden Boot winner struggled when he first arrived in England.
Former Premier League striker Shane Long has revealed that Sadio Mane was ‘horrendous’ when he first arrived in England.
Mane initially arrived in England following a very strong spell at RB Salzburg where he managed 45 goals and 32 assists in 87 games, winning a league and cup double before he signed for just £11.8m. The Austrian side boast a strong Liverpool connection from over the years and it has continued since Mane.
He then managed 10 goals and three assists in his first Premier League campaign and was impressive in a thriving young side. It also included a two minute hat-trick against Aston Villa which certainly caught the eye of the top sides. He then improved again with 15 goals and eight assists the following year and he joined Liverpool in the summer of 2016 for £34m.
After that, we all know what he went on to achieve and how he developed from an exciting winger into a top-class attacker that was feared across Europe. However, when he first arrived at Southampton, Long claimed that he really struggled to settle into English football. “When Sadio first came with first team, he was horrendous,” He told Ben Foster on his podcast ‘Fozcast’.
“Obviously, he wasn’t horrendous, I take that back but he had these moments where you thought ‘ooh he’s got something here’. You used to kick him and hurt yourself, he had that strength about him. He could take on everybody and then kick it into Row Z trying to cross the ball, he could run it off the pitch. But then Koeman managed to coach him and train him and he just hit this run of form which made you think this guy could go to the very top.”
Currently, he is goalless after six games of the new campaign with Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia - a league which his former teammate Mohamed Salah has been linked with - but he has managed two assists. His side lost in the Super Cup final against Al-Hilal but he has started every other game in which they have gone unbeaten. He recently faced former teammate Roberto Firmino’s Al-Ahli side in the league where they drew one-all. The game included names such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Marcelo Brozovic, Ivan Toney and Riyad Mahrez.