The manager of Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that his winger, Sadio Mane, has apologized to him for snubbing him on May 13, 2021.
Recall that on the said date, Jurgen Klopp decided to bench the Senegalese forward in a league match against Manchester United and played the club’s new signing Diogo Jota in his place.
During the game, he decided to replace Jota with Mane in the last 15 minutes of the game. Even though Jota scored a goal in Liverpool’s 4-2 win over Manchester United, Mane was not happy with his coach’s decision to start him from the bench.
The 29-year-old forward decided to express his anger by refusing to shake hands with the German tactician at the end of the 4-2 win at Old Trafford.
🗣”There is no problem.”
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) May 13, 2021
Jurgen Klopp said there is no problem between himself and Sadio Mane after he got a frosty reception from the Liverpool winger at full-time pic.twitter.com/mFADPn3bNT
During the post-match press conference, the German tactician insisted that there was no problem between him and the Senegalese forward.
On Sunday, May 16, Jurgen Klopp had no choice but to allow Sadio Mane to return to the squad’s starting eleven in Liverpool’s Premier League game against West Brom partly because Diogo Jota was out with an injury. The Portuguese forward would not be able to play in the remaining games of the season due to a foot injury.
Mane who played a significant role in Liverpool’s 2-1 win over West Brom, played the entire 90 minutes even though he didn’t score any goal in the match. At the end of the game, Klopp admitted that the forward has made peace with him.
“We spoke and he apologized,” Klopp said. “That’s clear and that’s it.”
So far this season, Sadio Mane has scored 9 goals and provided 7 assists in 33 games in all competitions. He is expected to be in action against Burnley on Wednesday, May 19.
On Diogo Jota who has been impactful since he joined the club on September 19, 2020, from Wolves, coach Jurgen Klopp confirmed that the Portugal international sustained a foot injury in the league game against Manchester United.
“No good thing without a bad thing – so we won at Manchester United but Diogo got something with the bone,” Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp told Sky Sports.
“Not too serious but serious enough to end the season for him. It is how it is.
“MRI scans don’t help us. If somebody goes into this machine, I can’t remember the last time when he came out and said, ‘oh fine, it’s nothing, it’s just pain’. It’s a while ago.”
