Despite reaching the summit with a UEFA Champions League title in 2019 and a Premier League championship this year, the rivalry between forwards Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané has been a talking point for the Liverpool faithful.
Dejan Lovren, who spent a large portion of his Liverpool tenure with both attacking players, noted Mohamed Salah “wants to score more than Mané,” but their rivalry is friendly and “different” to what some outside of Anfield have pictured.
Salah has been accused of being selfish with the ball and looking for his own interest in light of his scoring records. Mané aired his frustrations during an infamous outing at Burnley in Aug. 2019, though Liverpool was quick to sweep any rift rumors under the rug.
Both of these capable goal-scorers have been key cogs for boss Jurgen Klopp, but Lovren, who is now at Zenit sees their competitive instinct in a different light:
“I see it in a different way,” Lovren told KingFut. “It is good to have competition between players. It is normal, Salah wants to score more than Mané, 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.”
If this is truly the case, then Liverpool has a couple of gems in their hands. Seeing two improving forwards driven by internal competition can only boost the performance of the squad, so long as the hunger to score remains a driving force and doesn't evolve into selfish acts on the pitch.
Mohamed Salah netted 32 goals and 11 assists in his glorious 2017-18 Premier League campaign, totaling 44 and 16 across all competitions. Sadio Mané had 22 goals and two assists the following season, totaling 26 and five altogether across all competitions.
Should these two remain in this high-octane scoring barrage, Liverpool will remain glad the two have driven each other to thrive and seek the goals as thirstily as they have in the past few seasons.
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