Sadio Mané is Available for Jürgen Klopp Against Norwich City

He’s only had two days of training with the full Liverpool squad but Sadio Mané could still get the nod from Jürgen Klopp against Norwich City. Mané went the distance with Senegal at AFCON, losing in the final, and missed the entirety of Liverpool’s pre-season. He finally got his holiday just two weeks before returning to Melwood earlier this week. Now, he’s back and Klopp has been impressed with the player’s fitness.

A starting spot in the XI may be a bridge too far, especially given Divock Origi has played well on the left in Mané’s absence. But the way that Klopp addressed the issue on Thursday, it seems likely that Sadio will get onto the Anfield pitch at some point during the 90 minutes.

“He had only two weeks off, so he didn’t lose a lot and that’s the good news,” said Klopp.

“He looks fit. Yes, he is an option.

“Yesterday was the first session with the team because Monday he came in about four o’clock or so when we’d already left and Tuesday the team was off and he had his individual session.

“Yes, he [was] now with the team for the first time and looks absolutely OK, in good spirits and looking forward to it.

“So, yes, he’s an option but we will see.”

Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah will start the match up top for Liverpool and that’s a lot of action right there for the Norwich’s defense. So, I don’t see a reason to push Mané into action unnecessarily. But a good chunk of second half minutes would get him back into the swing of things without risking overexertion.

On the other hand, because I like to have fun, throw Mané in from the start to overwhelm the Canaries defenders and give us the demolition of Norwich that we’ve been longing for all summer.