Henderson: Mane was ‘laughing and joking’ after outburst

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Jordan Henderson has become the latest to play down Sadio Mane’s moment of rage, suggesting it merely reflects the competitive spirit in the squad.

Mane was apoplectic after Mohamed Salah ignored his call for a simple pass at 3-0 and instead spurned the chance.

But Jurgen Klopp has already calmed any concerns.

And now skipper Henderson, who watched on from his freshly-taken seat on the bench as Mane fumed, suggested it was quickly forgotten.

“Sadio is fine, he’s a great lad,” he told reporters including Goal‘s Neil Jones. “That’s just us pushing each other all the time. I think that’s important. 

“We all want to do better, we all want to improve, but we’re really close and I think we can deal with that.

“I’m not sure [what caused it] to be honest. I couldn’t really understand at first, but then when he came in, he was laughing and joking.”

Henderson reckons the benefits of the healthy competition were evident in the performance of Mane, who scored the Reds’ second goal.

“The most important thing was we got the result, Sadio knows that,” he said.

“He performed really well again. Him and Bobby were really big [at winning] second balls. He had a fantastic game. Like I said, we want to push each other. 

“We want to improve all the time, I quite like that now and again. I think we need it.”

All that matters is that the anger does not crop-up further down the line with more tangible consequences, and the message from the Liverpool camp is that there’s no danger of that.

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