Ex-Fifa referee: Mane needs better coaching from Liverpool as controversial footage emerges
Keith Hackett has suggested Liverpool need to work more with Sadio Mane to ensure he stops getting caught offside.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Fifa and Premier League referee delivered his verdict after Mane had two goals ruled out for offside in as many games.
The forward thought he had opened the scoring in the 2-0 win over Porto in the Champions League last week but it was ruled out for offside.
He also had a header ruled out in the 4-0 win over Southampton at Anfield over the weekend, as shown by footage on the BBC’s Match of the Day programme.
According to the Liverpool Echo (November 28), no other Premier League player has had more goals ruled out than Mane by VAR since its introduction at the beginning of the 2019-20 campaign.
“What happens when you’ve got a player of his calibre and the pace of which Liverpool play, inches count, feet count,” Hackett said after analysing the footage with Football Insider correspondent Connor Whitley.
“What he’s trying to do is get that extra distance on his opponent. I think it’s coaching. What they’ve got to do is to try and get it built into him to look down the line to make sure his starting position is onside and then go.
“It’s more difficult now, this is how VAR is operating. In my way, he’d get away with it but now VAR will catch them out.
“They can do a bit of coaching, put a bit of thought into it. What are his chances of getting away with it? Before VAR came in, ‘yes’, but there’s less chance now with VAR.”
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