Publications
Partners
Cape Town - Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has downplayed Sadio Mane's anger at being seemingly ignored by team-mate Mohamed Salah during Saturday's clash with Burnley.
Shortly after being taken off, Mane appeared to shout towards the Liverpool bench in reaction to Salah's earlier decision to shoot rather than pass to the Senegal international, who was in a better position to score.
Captain Jordan Henderson revealed that the incident was brushed aside by Mane and his teammates in the dressing room following the win and Klopp insists he won't be asking Salah to change his selfish ways.
"I could describe five or six situations where everyone thought, 'pass it, pass it, pass it' and then he scored," Klopp told the Liverpool Echo.
"So, that is the freedom of the player. The boys have to make these decisions: pass the ball, don't pass the ball.
"We can make this mistakes. You can lose the ball and miskick the ball or sometimes you cannot see your team-mate.
"It is not that you ignore him. Sometimes to us, it looks like you must see him, but you don't.
"It is not a big challenge, but of course with a striker always you can have this. What you do depends on the situation.
"We will leave it 100% because we won 3-0 and everyone goes away in different directions. In one week, I don't think I will talk about it again."
Reds skipper Jordan Hendrson, meanwhile, revealed that Mane was all smiles in the Liverpool dressing room after the game.
"I couldn't really understand at first, but then when he came in, he was laughing and joking," Henderson said.
"The most important thing was we got the result, Sadio knows that.
"He performed really well again. Him and Bobby were really big second ball. He had a fantastic game.
"Like I said, we want to push each other. We want to improve all the time. I quite like that now and again. I think we need it."
