LIVERPOOL MANAGER JURGEN Klopp compared Sadio Mane’s leap to Michael Jordan’s and said the attacker always had the goalscoring ability he has shown this season.
Mane scored two headers and hit the post with a third in a 5-0 thrashing of Huddersfield Town in the Premier League on Friday.
The Senegal international is up to 20 league goals this season – the most he has scored in his career – and behind only team-mate Mohamed Salah (21) for most in the Premier League this campaign.
Klopp lauded Mane’s aerial ability – comparing his leap to NBA great Jordan – and said a change in mindset had helped the 27-year-old become a prolific goalscorer.
“He always had the ability to do that but it looked like his mindset was more a creator, more a door-opener than somebody who runs through the door as well, but of course he has it all in himself,” he told a news conference.
We saw this year he can play easily as a number nine as well. You see how he is in the air. I’m not sure somebody has jumped that high since Air Jordan.
“The third one, it looks like he stands in the air really and then hit the post. It’s cool. We are where we are because the boys are as good as they are. That’s really cool.
But they couldn’t score if the boys from the wings didn’t pass all these balls, or [Jordan Henderson] again from the half-space with a brilliant ball, really from the training ground.
“It’s nice to see all these things, it’s cool, nothing bad to say about it.”
Liverpool returned to the top of the table, but Manchester City can jump above them again if they beat Burnley on Sunday.
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