The Liverpool Offside’s Player of the Month: August

A short month to start the season means only a few games to choose Liverpool’s first player of the month, and with all due respect to the challengers, on paper it doesn’t look a difficult call. In Liverpool’s four games, one player was named Man of the Match once and runner-up on two other occasions. That player was Sadio Mané.

The only game he missed out on was Burnley in the league, which he was injured for. And which Liverpool lost by two goals to nil. If that all doesn’t speak to his importance in August, it’s hard to know what would. Still, he wasn’t the only player who made a big impact—and that was only highlighted by missing time with injury.

Second in post-match voting in August was Joël Matip, who was missing for the first two games of the season as he recovered from a knock picked up in pre-season. When he did return, he was named man of the match and finished third in voting in the two games he played. That’s good enough to have him second in the standings.

They are followed by the two other Man of the Match winners for August—Philippe Coutinho narrowly beat out Mané for the honour in the opener against Arsneal and Marko Gujic added spark in the disappointing Burnley loss—are also on the ballot. In post-match voting, nobody else earned more than four points.

Awarding five points for being named Man of the Match through to one point for placing fifth, this month’s challengers are Mané (13), Matip (8), Coutinho (5), Grujic (5), Lallana (4), Firmino (4), Sturridge (4) and Origi (4). The likely winner seems clear, but it’s up to you now to make it official.