Jurgen Klopp says he has spoken to Mamadou Sakho and the Liverpool squad collectively following the defender’s messages on Snapchat last week.
Sakho spoke about his treatment and questioned why he wasn’t even being selected for the club’s under-23s in a series of messages posted at 3am on Saturday.
The Frenchman was then named in the lineup for the U23s on Wednesday night against Wolfsburg, playing the 90 minutes.
That meant the defender did not train with the first-team squad – unlike regular U23s trio Danny Ings, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ovie Ejaria who were at Melwood instead on Wednesday.
Klopp had said after Saturday’s win over Hull City at Anfield that he would speak to Sakho when the time was right and when asked about the situation at his pre-match press conference ahead of the trip to Swansea City said he had now spoken to the player individually and the squad together.
Klopp was asked if Sakho now needed to work hard and keep quiet to continue his career, to which Klopp replied:
“Those two things are not a rule for Mamadou Sakho. It is a rule for every player. Work hard and do your best.
“The rest of this I spoke to the team about and I spoke to Mama and we spoke together and that’s it.
“From my side everything is done and now we can carry on. There is nothing else to say.”
Klopp clearly wants to ensure there is no repeat of such an outburst on social media and wants to maintain a strong unity within the squad.
Sakho will now play for the under-23s again on Sunday, away to Ipswich Town. Whether this is a good thing for the player is open to question, with the player arguably now more isolated from the first-team squad and less involved with Klopp.
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