No matter how personal his teammates' celebrations are, Sadio Mane insists upon copying them.
Even when Roberto Firmino made a reference to his injured eye after winning Liverpool's Champions League group opener on Tuesday night, Mane was right there behind the Brazilian.
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Firmino was only fit enough to start on the bench against Paris Saint-Germain this week after suffering an abrasion to his left eye in Liverpool's weekend victory over Spurs.
The Reds' forward was fortunate to escape serious injury when a flailing Jan Verthongen hand resulted in a nasty eye poke to Firmino on Saturday afternoon.
While we doubt Firmino needed too much persuading to play against PSG, Mane did his best to ensure that the hard-working Brazil international would play against Thomas Tuchel's side.
"I think Bobby doesn't need his eye to play so I told him," Mane said, via the
Liverpool Echo.
"I sent him a message on Monday saying:
'Hey Bobby, come on. We need you'."
"You've all seen the 'no look' goals so I think he doesn't need his eye to play. I texted him saying:
'You don't need your eye!'"
Liverpool made it six wins from six this season thanks to their dramatic 3-2 win against the French champions.
The daunting fixtures look set to pile up for Jurgen Klopp now as Liverpool will play Chelsea twice, Napoli and Manchester City in the next three weeks.
"I think it's a big result, honestly," Mane said.
"It is very important for us to keep going on our good run. It was not an easy game because PSG are one of the best teams in the world but we played very well and deserved to win.
"It is about desire and belief, it is what we try to do. We have quality in the team and I think we're mentally free to go forward. We believe until the end. Finally, we scored the third goal which was very important for the team."
