Sadio Mane has laughed off his supposed strop on the Liverpool bench at Burnley, with James Milner having offered an alternative theory as to why the Senegalese was so angry.
The Reds forward was clearly upset when substituted during the second half of a 3-0 victory at Turf Moor.
He had been among the goals again, but appeared to feel as though certain team-mates were preventing him from making even more of an impact.
It was suggested that Mohamed Salah was the cause of his frustration, with the Egyptian having passed up the opportunity to play Mane in on goal shortly before his withdrawal.
Those inside the Liverpool camp were quick to play the incident down, with Milner offering his own unique take on why a row erupted.
The 33-year-old, who was not introduced by Jurgen Klopp and instead left to try and calm down the raging Mane, posted on Instagram: “Maybe I misread this, but I’m pretty sure Sadio was reacting to me not getting brought on #getmillyon #thanksmate.”
Mane has welcomed the light-hearted take on his actions and jokingly supported the theory that he was merely disappointed at Milner not seeing any game time.
Instagram
Klopp played down the spat after a record-breaking 13th successive Premier League victory for his side, telling reporters: “Sadio Mane is an emotional guy. We are all individuals. Something went not like he wanted, it is not the substitution [that made him angry].
“He was upset but that’s all. That was obvious. You cannot hide his emotions, I like that, but all sorted. We spoke about it, everything is fine.
“We are individuals, we are emotional. It was a situation in a game, what else could happen? It was not a phone call. It was a situation in the game he was not happy about but that’s completely fine.
“Would he do it exactly the same manner again? Probably not, but it happened. He didn’t say any wrong words, it just looked a little bit different to how he looks usually.”
Reds skipper Jordan Henderson also moved to quash reports of a rift in the camp, saying: “Sadio is fine, he’s a great lad.
“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 caused it] to be honest. I couldn’t really understand at first, but then when he came in, he was laughing and joking.”
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