Sadio Mane has made five appearances for Bayern Munich ever since recovering from his knee injury that kept him out of action for the better part of November, December, January and February, which also saw him miss the World Cup in Qatar with Senegal.
Of those five appearances since his return, he only started twice under Julian Nagelsmann; the 5-3 win over FC Augsburg and the 2-1 loss at Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga. It’s been reported that he was not happy at all with Nagelsmann for only playing all of 8 minutes against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League round of 16 second leg at the Allianz Arena, but now he has a fresh opportunity.
With Bayern’s decision to sack Nagelsmann and replace him with Thomas Tuchel, there’s a new chance for Mane, and other players in the squad, to once again stake their claim and try to solidify themselves into Tuchel’s starting lineup plans. Of course, Mane is working back from a lengthy injury layover, but he’s made it clear that he feels he should’ve been getting more time in recent weeks since he’s been back on the pitch.
Per new information from Sky Sport journalist Florian Plettenberg, Mane is excited about the opportunity to work with Tuchel at Bayern and ready to show the former Chelsea boss why Bayern chose to sign him over the summer from Liverpool. Tuchel will have been very well familiar with Mane from his time managing in the Premier League with Chelsea and apparently had him on his transfer wish list when he was with the Stamford Bridge club as well as when he was manager of PSG.
Mane has not scored a goal for Bayern since their October 29th win over Mainz that they won 6-2, and he knows he needs to be producing more up front. By stark contrast, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting has been in a sensational run of scoring form, which is part of the reason why Nagelsmann kept a preference of playing him as Bayern’s most advanced attacker. Mane did provide an assist in Bayern’s 5-3 win over Augsburg, but that’s the only goal contribution he’s had in his last 6 appearances. For a player that is so self-critical, that isn’t up to his standards.