Firmino on the rivalry between "selfish Salah" and "intense Mané"

Although both did a great deal to restore Liverpool to their former glory, Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah were never the best of friends. Everybody knew that. In his forthcoming autobiography, Roberto Firmino, who acted as the link in the brilliant trio that dazzled on English and European pitches for five seasons, confirms it. The Brazilian forward recounts some of the details in his book, extracts of which have been published by The Guardian.

"I knew these guys very well, maybe better than anyone. I was the one on the pitch, right in the middle of them. I saw with my own eyes the looks, the grimaces, the body language, the dissatisfaction when one was angry with the other. I could feel it. I don't know whether he was aware of it or not, but Salah frustrated everybody when he didn't pass the ball. I knew how to handle that situation better than anyone. Klopp raised the problem in front of all of us: when a team-mate was in a better position, the ball had to be passed to him. It was a clear instruction aimed at Salah. Over the years, I have to say that this aspect of his game improved considerably. He gradually learned to be less selfish and more of a team player, even though he is a forward, a goalscorer, and every goalscorer tends to be a little greedy in the pursuit of a goal. That's normal," Firmino wrote, among other things, about the relationship between the two African stars.

"Mané was more intense, in the good times and the bad. He was the most explosive of the three of us and he was also the person I felt most free to talk to about this subject. I always spoke to him, gave him advice, tried to calm him down. I told him to find peace, to play for the team and to stay relaxed. They were never best friends; each kept to himself. It was rare to see the two of them talking and I don't know if that had anything to do with the Egypt-Senegal rivalry in African competitions. I really don't know. But they never stopped talking, never broke their ties. They always acted with the utmost professionalism," he adds.

Roberto Firmino, known for his classy technical touches and his legendary smile, also says he never took sides in this rivalry. "I never took sides. That's why they like me: I always passed the ball to both of them; I wanted the team to win. Many people focus on what I brought to the front three tactically, but the human element was perhaps just as important: my role as peacemaker and unifier. If I hadn't done that, it would have been nothing but storms between the two of them on the pitch."

Yacine DIENG