Jurgen Klopp offers Mohamed Salah update after Liverpool touchline row
Jurgen Klopp has offered an update on last week’s touchline row with Mohamed Salah, which came during Liverpool’s 2-2 Premier League draw with West Ham at the London Stadium.
Salah was dropped to the bench for the Saturday lunchtime kick-off following a string of indifferent performances after his return from a hamstring injury.
The Egyptian superstar was summoned by Klopp with only a few minutes remaining against the Hammers, seemingly expressing dissatisfaction with his manager in front of the television cameras.
Klopp and Salah had to be separated by Darwin Nunez, another substitute, and later in the day Salah promised there would be ‘fire’ if he spoke about the incident.
The clash has fuelled controversy all week with Gabby Agbonlahor taking Salah’s side and Egypt legend Mohamed Aboutrika calling for his ‘arrogant’ countryman to apologise.
Facing the media on Friday morning ahead of Liverpool’s Premier League game against Tottenham on Sunday, Klopp sought to put the incident to bed once and for all.
Claiming the duo respect each other, the departing Reds’ manager said it was a non-story that has been now resolved in-house.
Klopp claims Salah row resolved
"Completely resolved, it’s no problem,” he said.
“If we wouldn’t know each other for that long I’m not sure how we would deal with it but we know each other for that long and we respect each other too much that it’s really no problem.
“We have the right to deal with these kinds of things completely independent of any expectations from the outside. So we are absolutely fine with it. It’s a non-story.
“But in general, the best situation is everyone is in the best place, we win games and score loads of goals and then incidents like that do not happen.”
Liverpool head into the game against Spurs now assured of their Champions League qualification for next season following the Lilywhites’ defeat to Chelsea on Thursday night.