During one of his first interviews after joining Liverpool from Southampton in 2016, Sadio Mané was handed a piece of paper on which his scoring statistics were scribbled down.

The note showed a comparison of his Premier League goals over the previous two seasons set against the likes of Eden Hazard, David Silva, Christian Eriksen, Wayne Rooney and Riyad Mahrez.

Mané’s exquisite turn past Neuer was the mark of a player whose confidence is growing LARS BARON/GETTY IMAGES

Mané found himself level with Mahrez, freshly crowned as a title winner with Leicester City, at the top with 21. That he was unaware of this was rather endearing from a player whose time on the south coast had displayed enough promise to persuade Jürgen Klopp to lavish £30 million on him.

“I didn’t realise I had scored more goals than famous players like that,”