The ongoing battle between Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah at Liverpool is considered to be “healthy competition”, with Peter Crouch claiming a Senegalese star has doubled his value.
Talk of any rifts in the Anfield camp has been played down, with emotions having spilled over during a Premier League fixture at Burnley earlier this season.
Mane was left frustrated by the selfish streak in Salah’s game, but any issues between the pair have been ironed out.
Both were back among the goals in their most recent outing, with Liverpool edging a thrilling Champions League clash with Red Bull Salzburg 4-3.
Mane opened the scoring for Jurgen Klopp’s side, while Salah bagged a crucial brace.
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The former now has seven goals for the season, while the latter has moved on to six.
Former Reds striker Crouch sees Mane as being crucial to the Liverpool cause, telling BT Sport of a player snapped up from Southampton for £34 million ($42m) in 2016: “He’s come on amazingly well hasn’t he.
“He’s scoring goals, he was up there as one of the top scorers in the Premier League last year, right up there with Salah.
“I don’t care what he says, there’s definitely a healthy competition between him and Salah for goals now.
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“I just think he’s improved his all-round game. Obviously he was [always] incredibly fast, incredibly strong and pacy but sometimes he was a little bit wasteful.
“And he seems to, other than the weekend [against Sheffield United], he seems to have [changed that].
“Look at some of his finishes, a few seasons back he wouldn’t have dreamt of scoring goals like this. He’s different class.
“I think when he was signed I think people were talking that [Klopp] might have overpaid for him.
“I mean he’s worth double that now, easy.”
Another ex-Liverpool frontman, Michael Owen, has echoed those sentiments, saying of Mane: “Yeah I think he would [walk into any team].
“His finishing has certainly improved, it has become more consistent over recent seasons.
“I think he’s a typical Jurgen Klopp player in that Jurgen Klopp improves players, it’s just standard in the team.
“You look at right across the team. He gets people playing for him, he makes people better and there’s no question his level at the moment is as high as it’s ever been.”