Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has said he will speak to Sadio Mane to address the forward’s handshake snub following Thursday’s 4-2 win at Manchester United in which the player was dropped to the substitutes’ bench.
Mane was a 74th-minute substitute for Diogo Jota, who scored Liverpool’s opening goal at Old Trafford after being selected ahead of the former Southampton player.
Television cameras showed Mane rejecting a handshake from Klopp as the teams walked off the pitch at the end of the game, but despite admitting that it was an emotional reaction from the Senegal international, Klopp said he will not take issue with Mane.
“You cannot make a bigger story of it than it is,” Klopp told a news conference on Friday. “Football is an emotional game and everybody expects us to control our emotions, always.
“But it doesn’t always work out like that. It happened to me as a player, happened to other players when I was their coach.
“We have had, so far, no real chance to talk about it, but we will and there will be nothing left from it and everything will be fine.
“Do we want these things to happen? No. But it’s not the first time in my life and I’m afraid to say it, it probably won’t be the last time. So that’s it.”
Klopp said that his relationship with Mane has been built on respect, so one incident will not impact on that.
“If somebody shows me respect five million times, and one time not, what is more important?” Klopp added.
“The world is in a situation where you then make this one time bigger than necessary. That’s unfortunately the case.
“I am completely relaxed about it. If you had seen me as a player, what I did out of emotion, it was insane. And I am a completely normal guy.
“It happened to me, but there is nothing else — we will talk about it, it will be sorted and that’s all.”