Klopp delighted with 'little machine' Mane
Sadio Mane was expected to play 20 minutes at West Ham. 77 minutes and two assists later, Jurgen Klopp was suitably impressed.
Jurgen Klopp hailed Liverpool's "little machine" Sadio Mane, who confounded pre-match expectations to play almost 90 minutes on his return from injury in Saturday's thrashing of West Ham.
Mane set up the first and fourth goals of the 4-1 win at the London Stadium as the Reds' slick counter-attacking tore the Hammers apart to leave Slaven Bilic clinging onto his job.
After returning from a month-long absence with hamstring injury this week, Klopp said pre-match that he expected Mane to make a 20-minute cameo at best.
But the Senegal forward lasted until the 77th minute and was on the pace of a lightning game, leaving Klopp impressed.
He said: "Sadio is a naturally fit player, he is a little machine.
"When we trained after the Maribor game - his first session on Thursday, [he] was a little bit stiff in the beginning but then you can see he starts enjoying the intensity.
"That's why we decided we should try it. I asked him because I could not see how he felt after that session.
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"I said in the press conference [on Friday] he is ready for 25 minutes, but obviously he was ready for 25 minutes plus. That's good for us."