The Brazilian could become the second most expensive footballer ever. Yet just when Liverpool looked like they needed the injured midfielder yesterday, Sadio Mane ensured a weakened team won without him.
They are different types of players, but Mane is deadlier. His fifth goal in as many games was his 15th in 29 league matches for Liverpool. He is the winger who outscores most strikers. He showed his powers as a poacher when a sorry stalemate beckoned.
But the Senegalese’s strike showed that money isn’t everything. Dominic Solanke may only cost Liverpool £4 million. The signing from Chelsea made an immediate impact.
Two minutes after coming on, he forced the error from Luka Milivojevic as the ball rebounded off the Palace man to Mane. He did the rest.
“I loved the goal,” said boss Jurgen Klopp. It summed up how his team harry opponents into mistakes.
So Palace were condemned to a second successive defeat under new boss Frank de Boer. “It is about the points and we are empty handed,” he said.
His side have not even scored. But they should have done. Christian Benteke was the second biggest buy in Liverpool’s history. He has scored more goals against them at Anfield than for them.
He should have added another when Ruben Loftus-Cheek supplied him with a wonderful chance. He blazed over.
“The chances we get, we have to punish them,” De Boer said. “Christian had the biggest one.”
Liverpool were reprieved after Klopp rested and rotated. His team missed Trent Alexander-Arnold, even though he is an 18-year-old rookie.
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Jurgen Klopp was happy with his Liverpool side for avoiding another slip-up
They missed Mohamed Salah, even though he has only made one league start for his new club.
They missed their Coutinho. Liverpool were less fast, less fluent. “The football in the first half could have been 100 percent better,” Klopp admitted.
So he changed things. On came Salah, then Solanke. It was notable who the first man substituted was.
Daniel Sturridge has not scored at Anfield in 2017. It was an ineffective comeback from injury, watched by England boss Gareth Southgate.
Osman: Coutinho will move to Barcelona but Liverpool in 'driving seat'
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Before then, Joel Matip headed wide of an empty net after Wayne Hennessey missed the debutant Andy Robertson’s cross.
The £8 million buy from Hull should have marked his bow with another assist but Mane failed to control his centre. “Robbo’s crosses are a real threat,” Klopp added.
Thereafter Hennessey made a string of saves. He parried a piledriver from Roberto Firmino. He made low stops from Georginio Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson.
He made late saves from Solanke, denying the youngster a first Reds goal, and Salah. Nevertheless, Klopp said: “I am completely happy.”
