Ridiculous pundits' predictions after Sadio Mane's departure from Liverpool

There seems to be a recurring theme around this time of the year. With the Premier League season looming on the horizon, you will begin to see predictions on who will win the league, or not. With the season starting slightly earlier than usual due to the 2022 World Cup, we are seeing predictions begin to trickle in now. And as usual, Liverpool are being underestimated.

Former Manchester United goalkeeper Ben Foster has had his say on who will win the title, and he doesn’t think it will be Jürgen Klopp’s men. In fact, he doesn’t believe they will finish in the top two. "This season, I’m going to go for third. I think there are two better teams than Liverpool this year," Foster said.

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"Losing Sadio Mané, I think they’re in a little bit of a transition period. I can’t see them trying to be up there and about trying to win the Premier League, I just can’t. I still think they’ll do decent; third position."

While there is no doubt that losing Mané is a blow for Liverpool, the club have adjusted well to his departure by signing Darwin Núñez and Fábio Carvalho. Moreover, with Luis Díaz having a full pre-season to acclimatise to Klopp’s tactical demands and the return of Harvey Elliott, Liverpool should be even better than last season, when they went closer than any team in history to winning a quadruple.

But yet we’ve been here before with ex-players and pundits underestimating Liverpool. Cast your mind back to the beginning of last season. Liverpool had made just one signing all summer in Ibrahima Konaté, while all of the big sides made numerous deals.

Liverpool became City’s biggest competitors

Chelsea were viewed as Manchester City’s biggest challengers after throwing down some £97m for Romelu Lukaku. Of course, we all know what happened: Lukaku wasn’t a good fit for Chelsea, and they were miles off of challenging for the title. Liverpool became City’s biggest competitors and it was the Reds who stopped the title becoming a complete procession and finished by January.

Many pundits had Liverpool pegged for a fourth placed finished last summer, with some even suggesting that Leicester would finish above them and Klopp would have to settle for a Europa League spot.

Liverpool will be in the title hunt again this season, and with Klopp arguably possessing better options in attack than he did last season, it’s difficult to argue where the club have any weaknesses in the squad.