Mané out
The big loss for Southampton out of this game was the red card to Sadio Mané in the closing stages. After grabbing the equalising goal for the Saints, the Senegalese winger clipped Roberto Firmino in a professional foul preventing a break away in the first minute of injury time and was rightly booked. A couple of minutes later his name went into the book again for a lunge on Alberto Moreno that saw him stomp on the Spaniard’s foot and then rake across his shin. Questions were raised about the deservedness of the second yellow with referee Andre Marriner having been pretty lenient for the duration of the match, but the goal scorer had no complaints.
Koeman faces a real headache in replacing the star man, with Mané having scored five in his last five game in all outings. Lethal patches of pace, dribbling and shooting have all been major boosts to the Saints and it seems improbable that any like for like replacement is present in the squad. With Mané often playing more central of late Koeman may opt to include a different sort of player into his XI, opting for perhaps James Ward-Prowse or Juanmi to fill the gap.
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