On Monday Sadio Mané received a standing ovation from his teammates after the victory of Liverpool over Burnley (1-2). The attacker broke the band in front of Liverpool with a nice shot and was changed shortly afterwards. Burnley was still at the same level, but in injury time Ragnar Klavan’s final position was determined. The praise of Jürgen Klopp goes out to the Senegalese in particular.
“It is abundantly clear that Sadio is incredibly important to us,”the rehearser tells Sky Sports afterwards,”his strength and speed are so often useful. At other times it doesn’t run with us and he still knows how to score. Wow, I think, then. Earlier this season, Mané was plagued by injuries,” They know that he is returning to the top level again. He is now taking steps and that’s also why I took him to the side. He ran the risk of an injury, while we need him.
Mané travels to Ghana on Thursday, as well as teammate Mohamed Salah, for the CAF Awards. Together with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is the duo of Liverpool in the running for the prize of African Player of the Year. Klopp rejects the criticism that it is not fresh enough to allow the two to leave shortly before the cup game against Everton:”We have two of the three best African players in our team, so should we say:’ There is something to celebrate, but we are not interested’? This does not show the respect that is appropriate in a situation like this. If the event took place on a matchday, they would not have asked for it. But it’s the night before.
That the situation is not ideal, Klopp admits,”We sleep in a hotel; they sleep in an airplane. This is the modern world,”explains the German,”We have arranged everything and we can let physiotherapists fly along. That is not a problem. They have to be physically present there, someone gets the prize, they give some interviews and they go home again. It is simply a sign of respect on our part. Aubameyang is the third player. I trained them all: cool,”says Klopp, who also gets questions about Nike’s blunder, which seemed to announce a transfer from Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona. The trainer is laughing away,”There is really nothing that interests me less. Someone told me about it, and I thought: Wow. Good story.
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