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Liverpool superstars Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane only have a healthy competition that benefits the team, and nothing beyond that, according to former Reds defender Dejan Lovren.
Lovren insisted that the rivalry between both Mane and Salah has only been friendly, and has always been helpful to the fortunes of the team.
There has been a lot said about the relationship that the two African superstars share, with some reports even claiming that they don't get along at all.
At the start of the 2019-20 season, the pair had a tiff on the field at Turf Moor, when Liverpool beat Burnley 3-0. Mane was fuming at not being given the ball by Salah, when he was in a better position to score, and it took James Milner on the bench to pacify the Senegalese after he was substituted by Jurgen Klopp.
However, Lovren was quick to lay those ill-advised allegations to rest.
“I see it in a different way," he said, according to Egyptian website KingFut.
“It is good to have competition between players. It is normal, Salah wants to score more than Mane, and this is football.
“If both players are in good form, then it serves the team well and that’s the most important thing.
“When Salah doesn’t score in a game, he doesn’t blame Mane for not scoring. Instead, he focuses on his mistakes to improve for the next game."
Salah and Mane have healthy competition: Former Liverpool defender Lovren
When the incident happened at Turf Moor, Liverpool head coach Jurgen Klopp dismissed it as something that sometimes happens between teammates, and that they would patch up as soon as the game ended.
That proved to be the case, as Salah and Mane both played a critical role in the 3-1 win over Newcastle in the following game.
Lovren also hinted that the results Liverpool have got in the past couple of seasons should put to rest any persistent rumours of a rift between Salah and Mane.
Liverpool won the UEFA Champions League in 2019, and followed that up with successes in the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup.
Then, in the summer of 2020, the Reds ended a long painful wait for the Premier League title, winning it for the first time in 30 years, finishing with a total of 99 points.
Salah scored 19 goals and Mane added a further 18 in the Premier League, as the relentless Liverpool juggernaut had the title virtually sealed well before football had to take a break during the coronavirus-enforced lockdown.
