I refuse to believe it.

Any team would miss a player of Mane's calibre, but Liverpool's main issue this season lies in midfield, which is now a mixture of exhausted, ageing players and younglings who aren't quite good enough yet. And perhaps never will be.

A couple of astute signings in midfield in the summer -- possibly Bellingham, but probably not -- and it'll all look a lot better next year.

They're not as far away as people seem to think. They've just focussed too hard on refreshing their attacking options and neglected the team's 'engine'. They'll be back.

I thought we'd suffer without Mane, but only in the sense of say dropping to third or fourth position (as opposed to challenging for the title as we did last season). Mane was my favourite player. He had the initiative to make goals out of nothing, which is something that we don't always see from Salah, for all his skill and occasional trickery. When Mane was on form, which was more often than not, he had the ruthless instinct to punish opposition mistakes, which is lacking among most of LFC's players, who seem too timid to take any shots, judging by recent games.

Still, Liverpool's current mid-table position surely can't be entirely attributed to Mane leaving. Some say it's partly down to Pep Lijnders' book giving all our secrets away, and maybe there's some truth in that (along LFC simply lacking the element of surprise and freshness, and needing new tactics), along with the injection of money we're seeing in other teams, like Newcastle, and the fact that things are finally, and unfortunately, starting to click for United and Arsenal after several seasons in which they've struggled to establish a successful system.