Jurgen Klopp has admitted that the reason for Sadio Mane‘s angry outburst after being substituted during Liverpool’s 3-0 win over Burnley was due to Mohamed Salah not passing to him.
Mane scored either side of a Chris Wood own goal and Roberto Firmino strike but he could have had two goals had Salah played him through on goal in the latter stages at Turf Moor.
With Mane completely free to his left, Salah instead tried to work a shooting situation for himself before being tackle by Erik Pieters and his teammate looked furious afterwards.
Mane was taken off moments later and as he made his way to the bench he remonstrated with his manager before continuing to vent his frustration to Firmino and Joe Gomez on the bench.
Addressing the incident post-match, Klopp said: ‘Sadio is an emotional guy. It’s good, we are all individuals and we are all like this. Something didn’t go exactly as he wanted obviously, it was not the substitution!’
When it was suggested to him that it could have been in relation to Salah not passing to him, Klopp replied: ‘Yeah but we clarified that as we always do in the dressing room, of course, so that’s all that we want to say about that.’
Salah registered an assist for Firmino’s goal but otherwise, it was a frustrating afternoon for the Egyptian as he hit the post with a curling effort and saw a rebound clatter off him and go wide.
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher admitted that Salah can be selfish at times in front of goal but pointed out that Salah has a better assist record than either of his strike partners.
‘Out of the front three, it’s Salah who actually gets the most assists,’ he said.
‘He’s got one tonight – you might not class it as an assist, he’s trying to get a shot off – but today was his 100th goal involvement in terms of goals and assists since he’s come to Liverpool in 110 games. That’s unbelievable.
‘He’s virtually scoring or creating a goal in every game that he plays but there is times when he should just make that extra little pass and show that little composure now and again.’
