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Wijnaldum: We’re not a one-man team

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Midfielder insists Reds aren’t reliant on Mane

Liverpool midfielder Sadio Mane has insisted that the Reds aren’t completely reliant on winger Sadio Mane.

The Senegalese forward fired Liverpool to a 2-0 win over Tottenham on Saturday night, as they won in the league for the first time in 2017.

During Mane’s absence from the team for the African Cup of Nations in January, Liverpool endured a horrid spell, with their only win coming away at Plymouth in an FA Cup third round replay.

His importance didn’t quite show in the team’s 2-0 loss away at Hull last week, but he shone at home this week in the win over Spurs,

“He is really important but it is too much Sadio Mane now,” said the Wijnl

“He scored two goals but also I think it has been about him because we had poor results without Sadio.

“Before he left for Africa we had good results, only against Sunderland [2-2 in Mane’s last game before leaving] we did not have a good result.

“Last week we lost with Sadio Mane. I don’t think it is fair to the other players to say ‘because of Sadio Mane we win’.

“Of course he is a great player – he helps us with his speed and he scores goals – but I think it is more about the team than only Sadio Mane. It is normal [that] if you have poor results without Sadio everyone will say ‘Sadio Mane’.

“If it was another player like when Phil was injured, if we had poor results then everyone would have said ‘Phil Coutinho’.

“You have to get used to it but I don’t think it is fair. We did it in most of the big games but in other games we didn’t deliver. That was the biggest problem.

“In the first half of the season we did show it against the small teams too but in December and January it wasn’t a good month. Against the smaller teams we didn’t deliver. That was a bad thing.”
By Ben Kelly – @benkelly_10

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