Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson admits he ‘liked’ seeing Mane row with Salah
LIVERPOOL skipper Jordan Henderson says he enjoyed watching Sadio Mane blow his top at Mohamed Salah – because a bit of needle is no bad thing.
Mane was furious at being subbed near the end of the 3-0 win at Burnley, pointing angrily at Salah - who had ignored his pleas for a pass moments earlier when clear through at goal.
Henderson broke into a smile when he was asked if he had ever seen the mild-mannered Mane react like that before.
He replied: “I’ve seen it now and again. Sadio is fine, he’s a great lad. I quite like that now and again. I think we need it.
“That’s just us pushing each other all the time. I think that’s important. 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 to the dressing room he was laughing and joking.”
Asked if it was Salah’s refusal to play him in that angered Mane, Henderson added: “Right. But the most important thing was we got the result, Sadio knows that.
WE PUSH EACH OTHER
“He performed really well again. He had a fantastic game. Like I said, we want to push each other. We want to improve all the time,”
Reds boss Jurgen Klopp said he would not blame Salah for being greedy, because most strikers get tunnel visions one they have a sight of goal.
Klopp added: “That is normal for a team-mate to react, but it is a difficult thing to do.
"I could describe five or six situations where everyone thought, ‘pass it, pass it, pass it’ and then he scored. 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 these mistakes.
“You can lose the ball and mis-kick the ball or sometimes you cannot see your team-mate.
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"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 per cent, because we won 3-0 and everyone goes away in different directions. After one week I don’t think I will talk about it again.”