Liverpool’s draw with West Ham on Saturday was dominated by a touchline spat between Jurgen Klopp and Mohamed Salah.
If the Reds faint title hopes hadn’t already been extinguished then the result at the London Stadium put them out for good.
But it wasn’t the consequences of the 2-2 draw which people were talking about after game. Peter Crouch was just one of the pundits commenting on Klopp’s argument with his star man.
Both manager and player have since addressed the incident, with Salah’s response in the mixed zone post-game especially interesting.
Before that though, former West Ham defender Stuart Pearce shared what he spotted the Egyptian do on the pitch once the final whistle had blown.
Stuart Pearce shares Mo Salah observation
The irony of the situation here is that Salah was actually very sharp once he came on. The 31-year-old wasn’t at his best still, but he looked more mobile than we’ve seen him recently.
Maybe the spat with Klopp put a bit of much-needed fire in his belly!
Anyway, Mo couldn’t help Liverpool turn a 2-2 draw into a 3-2 win no matter how hard he tried.
And speaking after the game, Pearce told TalkSPORT [27/04 2.26pm] what he’d spotted Salah doing at the end of the game.
“Salah went off very early, as soon as the game ended,” reported the pundit “He walked down the tunnel.
“The body language of the Liverpool players is that of real frustration.”
What happened between Salah and Klopp
With so little of Klopp’s time at Anfield remaining, maybe we won’t have to wait too long to hear what really happened here.
On the bare face of it, the manager wasn’t happy with something Salah did while waiting to come on. Klopp marched over to Salah and whispered something in his ear.
This visibly agitated Mo, who had to be held back by Darwin Nunez and Joe Gomez as Klopp watched on.
In fairness, we have seen some similar spats at Liverpool over the years, even when the Reds were at their peak under Klopp.
Salah was a source of frustration for Sadio Mane more than once, with Roberto Firmino confirming that the 31-year-old used to frustrate his teammates. We don’t ever recall seeing Klopp embroiled in this kind of incident with one of his own players, though. Worrying scenes.
