“This is not inside information”: Michail Antonio reveals what happened between Jurgen Klopp and Mo Salah
With Liverpool are struggling to keep pace with their title challengers in recent weeks, it has seen the Reds fall off the pace especially after their recent run of form. Jurgen Klopp’s side have currently won just one of their last four Premier League games, a run that includes two draws and a loss to Crystal Palace. That combined with the defeat to Atalanta in the Europa League has hurt the team’s morale from the outside.
But the Reds’ latest fixture, a 2-2 draw against West Ham United was overshadowed by the touchline row between Jurgen Klopp and Mohamed Salah. The two men were spotted before Salah was sent on as a substitute, with the Liverpool boss later playing down any rumours of a rift. The Egyptian has yet to open up on the issue but he did say “there would be fire” if he said what he thought.
Michail Antonio reveals what happened between Klopp and Salah
That was after the draw against the Hammers’ and it has many wondering whether Klopp has lost the dressing room or whether Klopp’s farewell tour is ending badly. But while speculation continues about, Michail Antonio opened up on the incident and what he has heard so far. The West Ham forward was already on the field when the incident took place but has since heard about from his team.
The forward revealed that he was told, by his squad members, that Salah ignored Klopp prior to walking on which sparked things. Then the German reached out for a high-five, Salah returned the high five but slapped Klopp’s hand the wrong way which didn’t go down well with either side. The Liverpool boss reportedly reacted, Salah reacted but Antonio added that he has no clue what Salah said.
“Basically – this is not inside information, nobody has told me anything – but what I have heard is what the boys have been talking about on the training ground. As the [Liverpool] players come on, Klopp always gives them a big hug and says ‘good luck’, but when Mo came on he walked in a different direction and was doing his shinpads and stuff like that,” Antonio told the Footballer’s Football Podcast.
“Klopp has put his hand out to him and his hand was there for a bit and as Mo stopped doing what he was doing, he just slapped his [Klopp’s] hand as a high five. Obviously Klopp didn’t like that and he was like, ‘do you want to sit back down?’, basically saying, ‘do you want to go on?’. And nobody has told me what Mo said back.”