Mane making no excuses for Liverpool´s draw at Watford

Sadio Mane believes Liverpool deserved to beat Watford but is not making any excuses for his side dropping two Premier League points after Miguel Britos’ late equaliser.

Mane had levelled for Liverpool after Stefano Okaka’s early opener, with goals from Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah then putting Jurgen Klopp’s men 3-2 up at Vicarage Road on Saturday.

Britos scrambled home in stoppage-time to snatch a point for the hosts, although Klopp insisted the defender was offside and the goal should not have counted.

But Mane, who scored on the Premier League’s opening day for the second season in a row, noted Liverpool’s defending had been below-par throughout, although they were without Barcelona target Philippe Coutinho.

“We’re disappointed because we deserved to win,” Mane told Liverpool’s website. “We should have defended better in this kind of game, it’s always complicated with long balls.

“It’s the first game of the season and we’re going to try to work hard for the next games. No excuses – everybody is fit.

“We’re unlucky we didn’t get three points because we were looking for that, but the next game we’re going to be ready to get three points to make our fans happy.

“We are all professionals. This can happen in football. With all due respect to Watford, we should have won, we were the better team. But it’s football. We’ll accept it, forget it and try to be ready for the next game.”

1 – Sadio Mané has now scored with his first shot on target in the Premier League in both 2016/17 and 2017/18. Eager. pic.twitter.com/wP6j1TV5Ms

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 12, 2017

Even without Coutinho, the attacking trident of Firmino, Mane and Salah thrived and were all on target, with the Senegal international praising the impact of his attacking colleagues.

“They are great players,” Mane added. “They showed again they can do well and try to help the team. I’m happy for them, but we should have done even better to get three points.”