Liverpool’s season turned out far worse than any fan could’ve expected, with the goal of retaining the Premier League long gone. But not all is lost for them, they are through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League and a top 4 finish, although unlikely, is still very much possible.
Africa’s main men, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané, are seemingly having very different seasons. Mohamed Salah remains top of the Premier League goal scorers with 17 goals, while Mané is at 7 goals for the season. So let’s take a look at their stats for the season with the use of the data provided by fbref.com and see whether their performances are truly as bad as everyone has been making of it.
Finishing
When it comes to finishing, goals are not always the only metric to be taken into consideration to analyse forwards’ performances. Some metrics allow for better understanding of players performances.
Expected Goals (xG) is a metrics that quantifies the quality of shots taken, it reflects how probable a shot taken is likely to end up as a goal. In this category, Salah has achieved around 9.8 xG from his non-penalty shots, which sees him rank 26th amongst Europe’s top 5 leagues, while Mané actually ranks 15th, with 11.1 xG from non-penalty shots. This would actually mean that Mané has been getting into better positions than Salah from open play. It is worth considering that Salah’s penalty duties do give him an advantage with his overall xG, which he leads. With the inclusion of penalties, he ranks 11th amongst Europe’s top 5 leagues with 14.3 xG, while Mané drops to 29th having not taken any penalties this season.
Goals-xG reflects how well players have been performing with the chances that they have obtained, and this is where Salah truly outshines Mané. The Egyptian has scored 2.7 goals more than he would’ve been expected to this season, while Mané has actually scored 4.1 goals less than expected. Only 10 players of all 2673 who have played more than 30 minutes in Europe’s top 5 leagues have fared worse than Mané, but he is accompanied by the likes of De Bruyne (-4.5), Werner (-4.9).
It may come as a surprise to many that although Salah has been outscoring Mané, the Senegalese forward has been able to get into better positions from open play, but it appears that Mane just hasn’t been able to capitalise on those chances.
Team Play
Another important aspect of winger’s roles in a team is their team play. Salah and Mané have been quite close in terms of quality of passes this season, with about 3.9 and 4 Expected Assists (xAssists) out of their passes so far this season. Their assists return has also been quite similar, with the Egyptian assisting 3 times and the Senegalese 4.
When it comes to positioning and their ball carrying, both compare quite highly to the rest of the players in Europe’s top 5 leagues. In regards to touches in the final 3rd, Mo Salah and Sadio Mané rank 6th (890) and 15th (777) respectively. This would imply that they have been in and around the goal a lot and they have actually been present in dangerous situations. Mo Salah’s shot creating actions sum up to 80 this season, which sees him rank at 49th, while Mané has created 93 of them, seeing him rank an impressive 25th.
Both players have been creating many chances for their team, and while Mané was underperforming for most of the season when it comes shooting, he has been very effective when it comes to creating chances.
Overall, Salah has remained very impressive when it comes to goalscoring and he has been able to outscore his xG this season, but his positions from open play has let him down. On the other hand, Mané’s finishing this season is what has let him down. The most important factor to take note from these numbers is that both players are creating chances for their teammates and getting into good positions, but what they are missing is that bit of luck and I believe they should both be back to their blistering form.
