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After four games
The relief was palpable after the ball hit the low far corner of Lukas Hradecky’s goal. Sadio Mané had just made it 3-0 in Bayern Munich’s match against Leverkusen (4-0); the Senegalese forward simply smiled after scoring and then was quickly swarmed by his teammates.
“We played him on the left in the last few games to give him a bit more rhythm,” Bayern Munich head coach Julian Nagelsmann said after the game. “He scored a goal today and played well.”
For Mané, it was the fourth goal in his eighth Bundesliga game. The Senegalese striker had a fantastic start for the Rekordmeister, scoring three goals in his first three Bundesliga games. But then it all went sideways, as the 30-year-old failed to score in four games straight, all games in which Bayern too failed to win.
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Therefore, getting Mané back on track was one of the primary tasks for under fire Nagelsmann during the international break. And although Bayern are not completely out of the woods yet, Mané’s performance—the Senegalese scored another goal in the second half that was chalked off because of a foul in the buildup—will be a source of optimism around the club.
Mané has also admitted that the transition from Liverpool to Bayern has not always been easy. “It is not easy because everything changes so suddenly: people, training, everything,” Mané said in an interview with UEFA.com. “Everything is changing, so it is not easy at all. I need to adapt. I knew that, and it came as no surprise. It is happening just the way I imagined it.”
Although the transition was less seamless than expected, Mané has no regrets about making the switch to Bayern Munich. “People here are welcoming, and they’re real players,” Mané said. “People around the club are amazing, so I am very happy.”
Bayern Munich CEO Oliver Kahn found words of encouragement for Bayern Munich’s top earner after Friday’s victory. “We have been suffering with him,” Kahn said. “He is such a great person, very important for the team because he works very hard. We were so very happy that he scored that goal.”
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In-form Jamal Musiala, too, underlined Mané’s importance to the club after the game. “He makes us more variable, and we often switch positions; Sadio is a great player,” Musiala said after the game. Despite Mané’s goal drought, the attacking trio of Leroy Sané, Musiala, and Mané is the most dangerous in the Bundesliga (overview).
And his former coach Jürgen Klopp does not doubt that Mané will regain his form quickly. “Sadio will do that,” Klopp said in an interview with Sky Germany. “He always does. Not every week; nobody does that. But in extremely high frequency.”
For Klopp, Bayern’s problems in the league are not due to Mané’s arrival but rather striker Robert Lewandowski’s departure to Barcelona. “He scored goals out of chances that weren’t even chances,” Klopp said. “In the end, you win 4-0 because Lewy made it 1-0 in a moment when there was no scoring chance at all.”
But even though Lewandowski’s absence might open the door for someone else to win the Bundesliga, Klopp does not doubt that Mané is a world-class striker. “Sadio is an outstanding player,” Klopp said. “Everyone in Munich has already seen that, and he’s absolutely world-class. Everything will be fine.”
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