Jurgen Klopp insists his spat with Mohamed Salah is “completely resolved” as Liverpool prepare to host Tottenham on Sunday.
Klopp and Salah were caught arguing on the touchline last weekend as the Reds were held to a 2-2 draw at West Ham.
Salah appeared to be annoyed at coming on as a late substitute and exchanged heated words with Klopp.
The draw at West Ham effectively ended Liverpool’s title charge as they are now five points off Premier League leaders Arsenal with three games to go.
Klopp on Friday morning insisted any fallout with Salah has been resolved and the winger will hope to start when Liverpool face Spurs this weekend.
“Completely resolved, it’s not a problem,” said Klopp. “If we wouldn’t know each other for that long, I am not sure how we would deal with it. But we know each other for that long and respect each other too much. That’s really no problem.
“I think we have the right to deal with these kind of things, completely independent of any expectations from the outside. So we are absolutely fine with it, that’s a non-story.
“But in general, the best situation would be everybody is in a best possible place, we win the game, we score loads of goals and yes, then the situation would probably have not been like that because Mo wouldn’t have been on the bench in the first place.”
Salah may start Sunday’s game with Spurs, but Klopp has revealed that Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk is a doubt. The defender missed team training this week, as did forward Diogo Jota, but right-back Conor Bradley is fit.
“Diogo is not in team training yet. Conor is,” said Klopp. “Virgil wasn’t the whole week yet, probably part of parts of team training today. So we have to see what we can do there. That’s it.”
Sunday will be Klopp’s penultimate home before he steps down as Liverpool manager at the end of the season.
During his time with Liverpool since 2015, the German has repeatedly called on broadcasters to alter their schedule and he believes it is to blame for English club’s bad performance in Europe this season.
“You have to become a partner of football again and not just the squeezer,” he said. “That’s it, that’s a little advice from an old man on the way out. That they dare to give Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday 12.30pm is a crime. I was actually waiting for Amnesty International to go to them.
“I would like to be once part of that meeting where somebody goes: ‘Liverpool 12.30pm’ and the whole room is bursting into laughter. Again?! They are still happy and collect subscribers - you can take me off that list.”
