Mane had a bad season before his last, people forget, and no one was saying he wasn't stepping up.
It is not a problem when one player has bad season, Salah more than covered for him that time and both Trent & Robertson were unstoppable. When you have the results, players aren't under that kind of scrutiny. This season most Liverpool players are under-performing and results show it well. Then media starts taking them apart one by one since that is what sells the papers

Nobody would talk abut bad defending if Liverpool outscored their opponents with results like 6:3, they would be speaking about playing football for supporters and always looking for a goal more.