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Sadio Mane
Liverpool and their fans must be flabbergasted on hearing this. Sadio Mane was nowhere near the radar of Real Madrid but that was only until Zidane came back. The Madrid coach has seen something in Sadio Mane that he thinks can be of good use for his team in the upcoming season.
Sadio Mane's style
Let's have a look at Sadio Mane's traits. He is a winger who is used to playing on both sides of the pitch. Currently a left-winger in Klopp's system, Mane is also capable of playing on the other wing and the center position where he played in Liverpool's recent game where Firmino was missing.
Mane is a big name, a Galactico, no doubt about it. But can Real Madrid really depend on him to be their main man? Let us look at Mane's style of play. Like any other winger, he has got the dribbling, the finishing, and the passing that is required. What he doesn't have is sheer pace like Bale, Vinicius, Mbappe. But that's not the only thing he doesn't have. All the abilities, passing, dribbling and finishing are not exceptional, they are average.
Now if you read that above line, you'd come for my head. We don't need to rewind much to see Mane's exceptional finishing. Going back to Bayern Munich against Real Madrid is enough to get an idea. A brilliant turn away from Neuer, the chip over the keeper and the defenders, you don't call that average finishing. Then why did we refer to Mane as average above? We didn't. Mane is not average, he is world-class, but his skills cannot be referred to as amazing on an individual basis. He isn't the best dribbler, or passer, or finisher available.
He is a very eccentric player, to be honest. He can miss an easy 1v1 on a regular basis as he did against Napoli or he can finish exceptionally as he did against Bayern. He has a poor first touch on a lot of occasions, a poor decision making on a lot of occasions, something that world-class players don't do. But then, he doesn't lose possession often, he scores clutch goals and provides assists too. His teammates cover up a lot of his flaws that we mentioned above.
At Liverpool, he has the license to do as he wishes because his team is always there for him. When he plays down the left-wing, Andy Robertson is almost just a foot or two behind him and thus Mane can choose whether to pick the overlapping Robbo or cut inside. His heat map thus forms a classic L-shape bound the box, which shows his regularity of either cutting inside or driving down to cross. What does that mean? Yes, it becomes predictable.
When Salah was a newcomer in the Liverpool side, Mane was shifted to the left side and his conversion rate of goals dropped massively. But Salah was so good on the other side that almost all teams concentrated on the Egyptian, giving Mane time to work on his creativity on the left side and improve.
Adaptability in Zidane's Madrid
If Zidane is looking at Mane as a Ronaldo replacement, it isn't going to happen. Mane cannot give you 50 goals in a season. Primarily because scoring is not the only thing he looks to do and secondly because he needs some good quality around him. We are not saying that Real Madrid lack quality.
At Liverpool in Klopp's system, Naby Keita wanders into the half-space in a very advanced position. Andy Robertson at almost all moments in way ahead into the wings. What Mane does is that he sneaks past slipping the attention of the defense because Robbo and Keita are pulling the eyes towards them. Also, you have Salah at the other end who gets more attention from the defense compared to Mane. Robertson on the left, Salah on the right, Firmino in the middle, and somehow nobody notices the danger of Mane. When the danger is spotted, it is too late for the defense.
Will it happen in Madrid? Well, Marcelo will be high but he is not young and blistering with pace. Reguilon won't attract that many eyes from the defense that people like Robertson do. Also, among the forwards, Mane will be given special treatment. Lucas Vazquez at the other end won't pull the defense towards him. Mane would have to adapt to the added attention from defenses because he is not used to it.
What Madrid can actually do is create a clone of Mane out of Lucas Vazquez. Train him to lurk like Mane and sneak behind defenses, unnoticed. Score goals, make assists, contribute. Other than that, if Madrid expects him to be the same man or better for that matter at Bernabeu than he is at Anfield, they are mistaken.
Sadio Mane is a huge upgrade for Lucas Vazquez or Vinicius Junior. He can replace either one of them in the starting lineup. He can play on both sides of the wings. But either the team adapts and bring the best out of him or he has to do more than what he does at Liverpool. Simply put, it doesn't seem like Mane would be as good at Madrid as he is at Liverpool. Liverpool doesn't depend on Mane, everyone depends on each other in Klopp's team.
Mane's advantage though lies in clutch situations. Being experienced, he can turn the game around in tough situations. He can do better than Vinicius, not in terms of pace but definitely passing and finishing, although on some stages he does make bad decisions. But he will make up for the bad decisions that he makes. But dependency on Mane, not feasible. Or maybe Mane as attacking pivot, not possible too.
