Mane de Ligt BayernGetty

Mane: Liverpool transfer of Senegal star to Bayern Munich slammed by Merson

Former England international Paul Merson has claimed Liverpool made a terrible decision when they let Sadio Mane join Bayern Munich.

While Mane hit the ground running in the Bundesliga, with Bayern enjoying their best-ever start to a league season, Liverpool are yet to register a win after three games.

"Liverpool were my tip for the Premier League title, but they've been shaken to their core in their opening three matches," Merson said in his column in the Daily Star.

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"So many of their big players just haven't got going and weirdly, I could never see them beating Man United.

"Offloading Sadio Mane was the worst business in the world. It was a terrible sale. Even if you kept him for another season and let him go for free, you've got a world-class forward for another 12 months.

"For that amount of money - £35m - you can't tell me Liverpool think that's a lot because they went and bought Darwin Nunez for £85m. They could have delayed that and kept Mane."

The former Arsenal and Aston Villa star added that the Reds are missing what Mane would have offered them.

"He's a big-game player that makes things and Liverpool are currently missing those," he continued.

"We have seen over time that Liverpool can still reel games off, they can win seven on the trot and we wouldn't even blink, so it's not time to panic, yet.

"Then again, that was with a razor-sharp Mane. He was such an integral player to everything that's been so good about Liverpool."

Jurgen Klopp’s side is yet to win in their opening three Premier League matches this season (D2 L1), last starting a league season with four winless matches in the 2012-13 campaign, when they failed to win any of their opening five games.

Although they are winless, Liverpool are tipped to beat Bournemouth at Anfield on Saturday.

They have lost just one of their last 33 Premier League games against promoted sides (W26 D6), though that did come at home to Scott Parker’s Fulham in March 2021.

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