What a difference a Sadio Mane makes. With the Senegal attacker away on international duty in the Africa Cup of Nations, Liverpool FC had a disastrous January. The struggles continued into the beginning of February, but today brought a total 180. Mane, who brings to the LFC table a skill set that no one else on the roster really has, bagged a double and Liverpool downed Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 at Anfield.
The Reds continued their recent trend of consistently beating Spurs, and Manager Jurgen Klopp was very pleased with the result; as one would expect.
“I had no idea that first half would happen but the boys are serious,” Jurgen Klopp said.
“They were not happy with their own performance and knew they needed to show a reaction. Of course the atmosphere at training was not like it is before a friendly game this week. Everything was more on the angry side.”
“Today the pressure was on us but we dealt with it. We had a really bad period. We are still around, not with Chelsea but with the rest. It shows we are able to do some good things. To qualify for the Champions League has top be our aim. We need this performance consistently.”
Having now crashed out of both the EFL Cup and FA Cup, the top four is all that Liverpool has left to play for this season.
They entered Saturday winless in their last five Premier League matches, but with a resounding victory today, find themselves just one point behind both Arsenal and Tottenham.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, Bold and the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication, appears regularly as a guest on CGTN America, WGN CLTV News and KOZN.
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