The players and manager are quite aware
about not talking too much about the
Premier League title...
ALI: We saw last season when we were several points
ahead that it was an unhappy ending for us, so we know
what it’s like. Today the points-difference is greater and
we have a team that is highly focused upon winning.
Our sole focus is on winning our next game and then
we’ll see where this gets us at the end of the season.
Following this path, we’ve got a great chance of a
happy ending to this season because last season we
learnt how much it hurts to lose the way we did, by just
one point. This season we can’t let a single point go.
Winning the Champions League last season gave
the team the confidence that we are going in the right
direction and should continue with what we were doing.
Last month Sadio Mane was named African
Player of the Year for 2019 – how much does
he deserve that?ALI: He really deserves it. He’s a great player for our team.
He made such a difference in our winning Champions League
campaign and also in the Premier League.
He won the Golden Boot together with Salah and [Pierre-
Emerick] Aubameyang. He’s started this season scoring a lot of
goals, too, helping the team a lot on the pitch, so this prize is
very well-deserved.