Rio Ferdinand makes a puzzling assertion about Roberto Firmino and Liverpool amid a new Sadio Mané development.
Prior to his injury, Roberto Firmino was having a fantastic season for Liverpool, but he has been the focus of an odd tirade from Rio Ferdinand.
Sadio Mané was perhaps Liverpool’s greatest performance as the club won the Premier League in 2019/20, but there were evident symptoms of a downturn during the next 18 months.
Mané scored only 11 league goals in 2020/21, a campaign he deemed the lowest of his career.
The next season did not get off to a better start for the Senegalese forward, who was on pace for a disappointing 14 goals at the midpoint. In fact, a goal scored against Chelsea in Liverpool’s opening Premier League match of 2022 snapped a seven-game scoring drought.
Mané did improve dramatically when Senegal won the Africa Cup of Nations, energized by his transfer to the center of Liverpool’s attack due to Roberto Firmino’s injury woes.
In the Reds’ previous 26 games across all competitions, Mané scored 13 goals.
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But beyond the figures, there were warning flags. This was not the explosive Sadio Mané of 2019/20, which explains why the club was willing to let him go despite his significant contribution to the team’s quadruple push.
Liverpool has been accused of a lack of ruthlessness when it comes to restocking the team, yet it has received criticism for one of the rare times it has behaved in such a manner.
Rio Ferdinand is the most recent analyst to challenge the decision to trade Mané to Bayern Munich this season.
“Why didn’t they just pay him the money to stay?” the Manchester United legend said on his YouTube channel.
“I think they let the wrong one go. They should have let Firmino go. I just don’t understand how you let someone who is actually world-class at that moment in time, who ideally would have liked to have stayed if you gave the contract he was looking for, or something similar to what Salah got.
“I just can’t get my head around it. Every Liverpool fan must be sat there thinking, ‘Wow, how have we let this slip through our hands, a player of that caliber?'”
This is a novel perspective on a widely held belief, but it does not strengthen the argument.
Clearly, Liverpool needed to replace at least one member of its legendary front three. From a commercial and possibly a sports perspective, it did not make sense to sign all three players to significant long-term contracts when they neared their 30s.
But it’s odd that Ferdinand believes Roberto Firmino should have been released, given that he was actually having a fantastic season previous to his recent injury.
Firmino contributed a total of 13 goals and assists in his first 21 games, and more importantly, he was also delivering his greatest performances since that championship season.
As he approaches the conclusion of his contract this summer, the Brazilian has made the case that he should extend his stay.
Mané has a comparable record at Bayern Munich, contributing to two more goals (11G, 5A) while playing two more games.
Interestingly, eight of his goals have come in games that Julian Nagelsmann’s team won by at least four goals.
Not hardly a game-changer for the German powerhouses.
The current storyline regarding Mané’s sale was always going to surface if Liverpool encountered difficulties this season.
Contrary to Ferdinand’s assertion, though, many Reds fans realize that his departure is not the reason their club is underperforming. They perceive it to be an overly simplistic explanation.
Mané is unquestionably a club great, but he would not have solved Liverpool’s present issues.
Ferdinand and company should realize that these two statements can coexist. And as for Firmino being caught in the crossfire, that is merely a perplexing byproduct for one of the few Liverpool players who can hold his head high about the present season.
