Sadio Mane‘s outburst after being substituted in Liverpool’s 3-0 win over Burnley, directed at Mo Salah, has been laughed off by the No. 10 and his team-mates.
The Senegalese was caught by the Sky Sports cameras furiously reacting to Jordan Henderson when he made his way to the bench in the second half at Turf Moor on Saturday.
It came after Salah’s second act of attacking greed in the game, failing to lay the ball on for a simple goal for Mane, instead opting to shoot just as he had done in a similar position with Roberto Firmino earlier in the game.
Salah is often accused of selfishness by fans and pundits, but is clearly a popular member of the squad and particularly with Mane, with whom he is close friends.
The incident was debated in the aftermath but Jurgen Klopp told reporters in his post-match press conference that “everything is fine.”
“He was upset, that was obvious. Sadio cannot hide his emotions, I like that,” he said with a smile.
“We spoke about it, everything is fine. We are individuals, we are emotional.”
Now, James Milner has further relieved the situation in a post on Instagram that prompted a response from Mane himself:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B16Kna7FJVW/
“Maybe I misread this, but I’m pretty sure Sadio was reacting to me not getting brought on,” the vice-captain joked, to which Mane replied: “It’s exactly what I been complaining (sic).”
The post was ‘liked’ by Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum, Andy Robertson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Adam Lallana, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Rhian Brewster, Xherdan Shaqiri, Harry Wilson, Marko Grujic and Kamil Grabara, among many others.
It is clear there is no animosity between the two players, and instead as Henderson explained after the game, Mane’s protest is a symbol of the squad’s mentality.
“That’s just us pushing each other all the time. I think that’s important,” he said.
“We all want to do better, we all want to improve, but we’re really close and I think we can deal with that.
“I’m not sure [what set him off] to be honest. I couldn’t really understand at first but then when he came in, he was laughing and joking.
“The most important thing was we got the result, Sadio knows that.”
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