Jurgen Klopp is working his magic at Liverpool, with the Reds third in the league and tied with Arsenal and Manchester City on the most points.

The Merseyside club are playing their best football since they almost won the title under Brendan Rodgers and seem to have responded well to Klopp’s ‘Gegenpressing’ and attacking philosophy.

As you can well imagine, it’s gone down a storm amongst the punters in the Transfer Tavern.

They have the joint most goals (20) and, although their defence is far from watertight at the moment, they head into every game looking like they’ll outscore their opponents.

It truly is swashbuckling.

There are a number of other factors which have contributed to their rise, such as a lighter schedule as a result of not being in Europe.

But one which shouldn’t be ignored is the signing of Senegalese attacker Sadio Mane.

Mane arrived from Southampton in the summer and has added some much-needed urgency to the Liverpool attack, with some fans at the Tavern claiming he’s the club’s best signing since Luis Suarez.

Here are FIVE reasons why.

HE’S DIRECT

One of the problems with Brendan Rodgers’ reign was that he brought in a lot of patient passers, but nobody with any real end product.

When Luis Suarez left and Daniel Sturridge got injured, they had nobody with any real pace or urgency to get into the box quickly and score.

Sterling left for City and Liverpool bought Christian Benteke in a move which slowed the team down even more.

With Mane, they have a player who just wants to get the ball and get to the goal, making the Reds a much more potent threat.

Lethal

It’s one thing being able to get to the goal, but putting the ball in the back of the net is an entirely different story.

Luckily for Liverpool, Mane is very capable of scoring.

He scored roughly a goal every two games at Red Bull Salzburg and hit double figures in both seasons with Southampton, clocking ten goals in his first season and one more than that last year.

With four goals in eight games at Liverpool already, it looks likely this will be his best season yet.

HE PUTS IN A DEFENSIVE SHIFT

One of the key aspects of Klopp’s philosophy is that every player on the pitch contributes to the defensive phase of the game.

When you watch them in motion, you will see that every player puts pressure on the opposition when they have the ball – even the striker.

Mane has done this better than most and actually ranks fourth for average tackles in a game (1.8), more than Joel Matip, Dejan Lovren, Adam Lallana and Giorginio Wijnaldum.

HE CAN BEAT A DEFENCE ON HIS OWN

While they are both brilliant players in their own right, Liverpool’s Brazilian pair of Phillippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino aren’t the most direct of players.

Coutinho prefers to hold onto the ball before picking out a killer pass or unleashing a thunderbolt on goal, while Firmino uses his positioning rather than pace to get on the end of chances or link play together.

Mane is arguably their only player capable of taking on a defence and scoring, as he showed against Arsenal on the opening day.

HE’S NOT HIT HIS PEAK

As he almost seemed the finished product when he came to Southampton in 2014, it’s difficult to remember Mane is only 24.

The main caveat to his game is that the Senegalese is very inconsistent – he will often go for weeks without doing anything before erupting with explosive returns in one game.

If Klopp can get some consistent form from Mane – and the early signs suggest he can – then Liverpool could well be looking at the next Fernando Torres or Luis Suarez.