Sadio Mane Named Player of the Month for November

We’ve spent a lot of time on these pages talking about how the beauty of this particular Liverpool attacking trio is unique in how they seem to be greater than even the sum of their individually brilliant parts. Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane, and Mohamed Salah are all certainly brilliant in their own right. But unlike other squads or, ya know, supergroups, this true kicks into a higher gear when on the pitch together. That their shared skills and talents and desire work in, well, perfect harmony.

Over the last few years, the stock of each player has only ballooned with the relative success gleaned off of their shared hard work. Each of the trio are constantly linked with top teams in Europe and are often coveted on rival teams’ fan boards. The fruits of their labor includes, then, the rising perceived value of each individual member.

Because of this, it has often been hard to pick out which member is more valuable. Over the course of the season, the three attackers will often rotate out moments of brilliance. In the month of December, the member who’d stepped forward was Sadio Mané.

It’s pretty obvious to many fans and observers that Sadio’s been at a different level over the last 6 months. And that the transformation has included a requisite rise in level of intensity present in his focus on the pitch. I’ve joked, in fact, that his being so tightly wound makes him the perfect choice to be this club’s Amy Santiago (Mohamed Salah is, of course, Jake Peralta), always searching and clawing for perfection.

Well, after a blistering November (which has spilled into December, given his incredible performance during Wednesday’s Merseyside Derby), the fans awarded him the Standard Chartered Player of the Month for November. The Senegalese forward counted 3 goals in the month of November, which sees him standing atop Liverpool’s goalscorers for the year.

For those keeping score, each member of the trio has won the award once this season, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain taking the award in October. Looks like things are still very much the same at Anfield, then.