Former Liverpool captain, Jamie Carragher, believes Sadio Mane’s frustration with teammate Mohamed Salah, would have been “gathering for months”, before the Senegalese’s outburst at Burnley.
Mane cut an angry figure when he failed to receive a pass from Salah, in the closing stages of last month’s 3-0 win over the Clarets at Turf Moor.
The forward was substituted soon afterwards and was seen shouted at several figures on the Liverpool bench including club captain Jordan Henderson, while James Milner was seen trying to calm his down.
In his Daily Telegraph column, Carragher said disagreements between teammates are often about much more than just what is going on on the pitch.
“The disagreement earlier this season between Liverpool strikers Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah comes into the same category [of character-building arguments].
“There is no way Mane lost his head solely because he did not receive a few passes against Burnley . His frustration will have been gathering for months, ensuring it only needed a trigger to bring it into the open.
“Jurgen Klopp is not a manager who allows his players to dwell on any negative issue so I strongly suspect he will have discussed it with both players.
“Ironically, I felt Mane was too unselfish in the Champions League game against Napoli in midweek, trying to pass to Salah when he should have been going alone.
“So long as these disagreements are isolated and issues swiftly resolved they do not cause a problem.
“Where managers do become wary is if cliques form, sides are taken and personalities clash to such an extreme it becomes detrimental to the unity and spirit within the camp,” he wrote.
The Reds, who currently top the Premier League table, go to Chelsea on Sunday.
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