Liverpool made a major mistake by selling Sadio Mane in the summer and they will live to regret the decision to replace him with Darwin Nunez.
That's an opinion held by former Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson, who claimed that getting rid of Mane "was the worst business ever" and also admitted that his replacement, Nunez, "isn't in the same league at the moment". Mane was allowed to leave the Reds to join Bayern Munich in the summer after six successful years at Anfield.
Mane scored 90 Premier League goals in 196 matches for the Reds - a remarkable record for a player that was often in the shadow of Mohamed Salah given the latter's impeccable goal return. However, the 30-year-old would go on to leave the Reds and moved to Bayern in a deal worth around £35million.
Speaking in his Sky Sports column, Merson said: "I've said it from day one, in my opinion, selling Sadio Mane was the worst business ever. The bloke scores big, big goals. Go through them, first goals, equalisers, winning goals in last minutes, big goals.
"He led from the front with his closing down, and for me, what they sold him for, I just didn't get it. Darwin Nunez isn't in the same league at the moment. Not in the same league at all."
Liverpool have started the season with either Roberto Firmino or Nunez as the central forward - two players who typically do not press the ball as well as others - such as Mane. Merson highlighted the fact that the Reds don't press as well from the front in comparison to last season and admitted they are more open than they should be.
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Merson continued: "It doesn't matter how good a player you are when you've got people running at you left, right and centre. I'm not a stats person, so I'm just going off the top of my head - but for me, Mane was a big, big player for Liverpool.
"To sell him for £30m-odd, which in the world of the Premier League is a cup of tea, wouldn't they have been better off to keep him and let him go for free? It's come back to bite them and could cost them a lot more than £30m by the end of the season."
Mane got off to a fast start with the Bundesliga giants, scoring four goals in his first four games. However, he subsequently went five matches without a goal, including two blanks in the Champions League and in the recent loss at Augsburg.
He ended his mini goal drought by netting in Friday's four-goal victory over Bayer Leverkusen, which ended Bayern’s four-game run without a win in the Bundesliga. It was a collectively poor run of games from the German champions, which heightened the spotlight on the former Reds forward's form.
