Michael Owen slammed for his ridiculous take on Sadio Mane
Liverpool’s woeful run of form at Anfield continued as their last Premier League outing ended in a 1-0 defeat to Chelsea. Liverpool had only one shot on target throughout as they succumbed to their fifth home loss in a row – for the first time in their much-decorated history.
A first-half strike from Mason Mount gave Chelsea all three points, as one of the talking points from the game was the underwhelming performances from star forwards Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah – both of whom failed to make an impression against the West London outfit.
As a part of the immediate reaction from the game, former Liverpool player Michael Owen came up with a wild conspiracy theory about the forwards.
The Ballon d’Or winner accused Mane of trying too hard to stay on his feet because, according to him, Mane knows that Salah is the penalty taker of the team and in case he goes down and the spot-kick is awarded – it will be Salah who steps up to take it.
Owen’s comments stem from the first-half passage of play when Mane looked like he was tripped by Andreas Christensen in the box, but the Senegalese tried his best to stay on his feet and fired his shot wide.
Owen’s inference from the situation was that Mane prefers to rather stay on his feet and try to have a shot himself, rather than go down and help the Egyptian increase his goal tally.
The theory was adjudged to be wild and out of order by Liverpool fans on Twitter, who took the mickey out of Owen for his comments after the game – some said that they have not seen a worse take than Owen’s about Mane and Salah.
Mane is not someone who is particularly known for being a selfish person either on or off the pitch, and his partnership with fellow forwards Salah and Firmino has been an integral part of Jurgen Klopp’s side who won the Champions League and the Premier League in back to back seasons – even though all three of them have been having an underwhelming season by their very lofty standards, to say the least.
Check out the reaction below –
thats the most ridiculous thing iv heard in a while
— Nees (@Nees_MM) March 5, 2021
Haven't seen a worse take.
— Sidhanth Hota (@Sidhanthhota) March 5, 2021
So did Mane miss that chance yesterday bc he thought "damn Salah is going to get another assist to his name if I score this" 🤡🤡
— Nate😌 (@SimplyNate_) March 5, 2021
Great insight into the club from our International Ambassador 🤐
— Mike Lean==💙 (@BoyzieLean) March 5, 2021
The idea that Mane stayed on his feet to avoid Salah getting a penalty is absolutely 100% ridiculous https://t.co/xqu3CVuiOP
— James Pearce (@JamesPearceLFC) March 5, 2021
