Jurgen Klopp responds to Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane rivalry rumours

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp insists Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane enjoy a close working relationship amid rumoured tension between the pair.

Between the two of them, Salah and Mane have scored 32 Premier League goals this season and have set up a further 11, with their continued good form helping to close the gap to Manchester City at the top of the table to just a point.

The pair went head-to-head on international duty this past week, with Mane's Senegal eliminating Salah's Egypt on penalties to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and there has previously been suggestions that the pair don't get along too well.

However, Klopp, speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of the game against Watford, insists the pair just want to be as successful as they can be on the pitch, and any frustration they show is because of their desire to be the best they can possibly be.

"You play together in a team and both want to score goals. That is normal. We want them to score goals. There are situations where one doesn’t see the other and doesn’t finish the situation off and then we immediately say, ‘what is the reason for that?’

"The reason for that is that in this situation he thinks: ‘I can put it in here’. And then the goalie has the same idea and the ball does not go in. Then it is easy to say afterwards if you had passed the ball then it would have been in.

"I have these moments outside but when I watch the situation back I accept there is no chance. It was really difficult to pass the ball and these kinds of things. There is nothing. That is how it is. We are human beings and from time to time we make wrong decisions, but it is nothing personal."

Klopp elaborated to say that poor decision making was often the main factor when things go wrong, and is confident the pair consider themselves friends.

"We just want to score a goal and realise a little bit later it was the wrong decision. It is nothing to do with any kind of rivalry with another player on your team, it is just the wrong decision.

"No doubt about it they are not only close, they are well educated, they are good boys, they are good humans. Sadio and Mo would consider themselves for sure as friends. They probably have ‘best friends’ somewhere, maybe here or at home, and this situation would be challenging even if it was your best friend."