Richard Dunne: 'Magnificent Mane keeping Liverpool's Premier League title bid on track'

The title race hasn’t been won just yet, and the Manchester derby this weekend will have a say in how much Manchester City can still play a part in it, but Liverpool right now are playing like champions.

And a big reason for that is the form of Sadio Mane.

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Mo Salah is not at his peak, but Liverpool aren’t suffering as Sadio Mane is in such good form. In terms of attacking, he’s the best in the league. He has been outstanding so far.

I don’t get to see every Liverpool game, but I keep hearing how good he is and wonder if he’s really that good.

Then I saw him play against Everton in midweek and I can only admire him, his set-up play for the goals, his movement, his work-rate and the way he took his goal.

He never stopped, even when he missed that chance at the end he kept going, and to have that fire in your team is invaluable.

His work-rate means the opposition have to drop off all the time as he’s such a threat, for 90 minutes, which gives other players time and space to play.

Mane offers so much with his pace and skill, but it’s not just that. His work-rate is amazing and not many can match him in the Premier League.

The win over Everton on Wednesday was a return to form for Liverpool, certainly in the first half. They had some deficiencies defensively, as we know, but in attack they were brilliant in their destruction of Everton.

But you also saw Manchester City win the previous night and it looks like they are back to their best, and you can’t rule City out, despite the problems they have had this season. City are a side capable of going on a run of 14 or 15 wins in a row and then the title race is a different story.

Of course, a derby game has a different complexion and while Manchester United have let in a lot of goals lately, the midweek win over Spurs will have given them confidence for the City test. It was a psychological boost for Ole Gunnar Solksjaer to get a win over Jose Mourinho but City look to have gotten their verve back.

This is a very big month for Liverpool, a lot of games in a lot of competitions, but we need to see how they are placed at the end of January. If they are still clear by then, that will have a massive impact on the title’s destination.

There are too many games to be played to say that it’s done deal, in terms of Liverpool. Too much can happen in the next few weeks.

But I said they are playing like champions because what I like about Liverpool right now is the confidence you see when they play.

All the players seem to know what they are doing. Jurgen Klopp made four changes to the team for the midweek clash, but those individuals looked like proper team players, not just squad men.

Some of those players haven’t played for a while but they didn’t look rusty, the likes of Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri.

You feel they have been training hard and waiting for their opportunity. They know their place in the squad but also realised that the Everton game was a chance to come in and put their footprint on what could be a title-winning season.

They looked like they had been playing every Saturday at a top level but Shaqiri hadn’t started a league game this season before Wednesday.

And when you have a squad which is as hard-working as this one, it’s a good sign.

You could still have a concern over the fact that Liverpool just can’t keep a clean sheet, but the Premier League is strange this season, I don’t see many teams keeping clean sheets.

But Manchester City aren’t keeping clean sheets either, they’ve had games which looked like a stroll in the park but the opposition still manage to score.

Both managers put a big emphasis on how they attack, how they press teams and the amount of goals they are scoring is amazing so if they concede one, they are likely to score three in every game.

It looks nice when you have clean sheets. As a defender, I know that a 2-0 win makes you look like a stronger team, but I don’t think Jurgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola are losing any sleep over conceding goals as long as they are still winning.

Everton, though, have really changed from the club where I played a long time ago.

I’ll always have a soft spot for them as I spent so long at Goodison Park, but the Everton I knew was an honest, hard-working club.

The club I see now has money and is trying to spend that money to make a name in the transfer market. They can’t get the players they really want so they go out and spend £35million on Alex Iwobi. It’s completely the wrong structure there and it’s worrying for the club.

I’m surprised the manager lasted as long as he did, but Everton’s problems are bigger than just the manager, although the club hasn’t chosen well in terms of that position.

The best one in recent times was probably Sam Allardyce… and they got rid of him as quickly as they could as he didn’t fit the profile they wanted.

The club seems to have the financial clout so they should be aiming high for Marco Silva’s replacement.

Everton have spent money on players but not spent it well. They keep changing the manager and each replacement who comes in decides he doesn’t want to work with the players already in situ.

Look at the signing of Moise Kean: they already had Dominic Calvert-Lewin doing the same job so why did the spend so much on Kean, what was the point?

They are both good players, but they are the same player and don’t score goals.

Their recruitment has been wrong but whose fault is that?

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