Manchester United and Liverpool square off live in the English Premier League on Sunday. Here’s how the two teams match up in terms of African representation.
Liverpool
Four out of 30 (10%) African representation.
Joel Matip – Cameroon (28)
- He started six EPL games this season and has one goal already (hasn?t scored more than one goal in a season for Liverpool).? He has 82 career EPL appearances and has scored four goals
- In his 82 appearances, he has been part of 29 clean sheets.
Naby Keita – Guinea (24)
- No starts this year
- In 25 previous EPL he has two goals and one assist.
Sadio Mane – Senegal (27)
- Golden Boot Award last season with 22 goals.
- Player of the month twice before (August 2017 and March 2019).
- He has 167 career EPL appearances (71 goals, 23 assists)
How Mane’s performance has improved at Liverpool
- 2016/2017 – Scored a goal every 2.07 games (13 goals in 27 games)
- 2017/2018 – Scored a goal every 2.9 games (10 goals in 29 games)
- 2018/2019 – Scored a goal every 1.64 games (22 goals in 36 games)
- 2019/2020 – Has scored a goal every 1.6 games this season (five goals in 8 games)
Mohammed Salah – Egypt (27)
- Golden Boot award in the last two seasons (scoring 22 goals last season and 32 in the 2017/2018 season)
- Player of the season in 2017/2018
- Player of the month in November 2017, February 2018 and March 2018
But Salah’s goal-scoring has dipped
- 2017/2018 – Scored a goal every 1.13 games (32 goals in 36 games)
- 2018/2019 – Scored a goal every 1.73 games (22 goals in 38 games)
- 2019/2020 – Has scored a goal every two games (four goals in eight games)
Worth noting that Yasser Larouci was born in Algeria however he is a French International player
Manchester United
Just one African player in the squad.
- Eric Bailly – has not started a game this year.
- Worth noting that Axel Tuanzebe was born in the DRC.
There are approximately 330 foreign players plying their trade in England (EPL) therefore that means just over 1% of the Liverpool and Manchester United squads are African.
Data sourced from the official Premier League website.