Sadio Mane Gets The Match Ball, Thanks to Andy Robertson

I once had a university professor who described his own teaching style as a hamster on cocaine. And it didn’t take many classes with the energetic, diminutive political science professor to understand, if not completely agree with this description.

That brings us to Andy Robertson, whose footballing could be aptly described as a hamster on cocaine. The diminutive fullback has come on strong in the second half of the season, notably for his mad pressing skills.

After pressing and harrying everything in blue and white for 90-plus minutes last night, he went on to chase down the Porto ball boy after the final whistle. Why? Because Robbo wasn’t going to let someone sneak away with Sadio Mane’s well-deserved match ball.

“I had to go running after the ball boy for his ball at the end,” he said to the official website, presumably between loud sniffing sounds and with a twitching, nervous demeanor, “Luckily, I managed to get it. They were three class finishes from [Mane].

“Mo and Bobby have stolen the headlines in the last couple of weeks. But Sadio is on my side [of the pitch] and he is a workhouse, he works so hard. He took the limelight and got his three goals.”

That’s a teammate. Of course, Mane has had a rough go of it this season, but those three big goals (with the match ball, to boot) will go a long way toward helping him play to the level we know he can.

If Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino, and Mane all start firing at the same time? This Liverpool side will be very hard to stop in a knock-out competition. And in Robbo, they have a teammate who is only too happy to harass ball boys on their behalf.