Transferred to Al-Nassr - why Mané's move to Bayern has been a disaster

Bayern Munich's rebuild of their misfiring squad continues as the club has now officially ended Sadio Mané's brief stint in the Bundesliga. Bayern Munich have sold Mané to the Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr. Bayern will receive €30 million for the forward. The German record champions will not only receive pretty much the fee they paid a year ago to Liverpool to sign Mané but will also save on significant bonus payments to the Premier League side. But with the chapter closed, how did it all go wrong for Mané at Bayern?

Mané's struggles in Munich were perhaps best illustrated in Transfermarkt's most recent Bundesliga market value update. In which no player seemed to suffer from the updated values quite like the Senegal international, who saw his market value drop significantly, from €65 million down to €45m. No player in the German top-flight suffered a greater drop in value, with only fellow Bayern star Leon Goretzka dealt a similar blow of €20m stripped from his value. "Due to the long injury, he wasn't able to contribute as much to FC Bayern as we and he himself had hoped," Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen said in a club statement. "That's why we decided together that he should start a new chapter in his career and make a fresh start at another club."

Indeed, Mané’s latest value means that the 31-year-old forward has seen his market value decrease by no less than €45m since he made the move from Liverpool to Munich in a deal worth a reported €32m to the Bundesliga giants at the time. As such, Mané’s value is now at its lowest point since early 2016, when he was still making a name for himself at Southampton. So why has the Senegal international’s fall from grace been so drastic in Munich? 

A good player in the wrong team - Mané's struggles at Bayern

Over the course of his first season in the Bundesliga, Mané bagged seven goals and five assists in 25 league games. And while that may not seem like a lot, his numbers are somewhat compressed due to injury and the amount of times he was forced to start games on the bench. For example, the forward missed no less than eight games through injury or suspension and started on the bench in eight of Bayern’s 34 league games. 

However, when we narrow that down to a game average, it works out at 0.75 goals and assists per 90 minutes. And, rather surprisingly, not only is that better than Mané’s return for Liverpool last season in the Premier League (0.64) but also better than four of his last five seasons for the English club. So if Mané was scoring or creating goals at a better rate than he did in England, why has his time in Germany been deemed such a failure? 

Much of Mané’s problems come down to perception. Although much was made of his move to Munich, the troublesome angle in which his signing was portrayed to fans and the media was that of a like-for-like replacement for Robert Lewandowski, who departed for Barcelona in the same window. And, as any Liverpool fan would happily state, Mané is many things but he has never really been a traditional no.9. 

As such, whenever Mané tried to exert his dominance in the left wing role, he often butted heads with Bayern’s established stars such as Thomas Müller or Leroy Sane, or even young star Jamal Musiala. Who all enjoyed playing in the role. By the time the former Liveprool star returned from a lengthy injury in late February, he’d been resigned to the role of sole striker and even that was later taken from him by target man Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. In other words, Mané simply joined a club that had no space for him in their starting XI or indeed the patience to try and figure out how to make him work in their current system. And now he seems stuck at Bayern, wondering whether Thomas Tuchel will find a spot for him in his team next season or if he’ll be sold to the highest bidder when the summer transfer window opens.