How Jurgen Klopp Prepared Mo Salah And Sadio Mane For Africa’s ‘Big Game’

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp continues to acknowledge the importance of international football after preparing two of his star players for a big game in Africa.

The German was criticised ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations tournament earlier in the year after mentioning “a little tournament in Africa” when discussing his players’ involvement.

It was a sarcastic line meant to demonstrate how important the competition was to his players, but it was unfortunately taken at face value by some high profile media outlets, and subsequently seen in some quarters as Klopp disrespecting the tournament.

Klopp knows how much international football means to his players, and especially how much that tournament meant to two of his star players, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.

Mane’s Senegal side ended up defeating Salah’s Egypt in the final, but that wasn’t the end of this particular battle.

They face each other as part of the unforgiving African section of World Cup qualifying which sees many good teams from the region fail to make the tournament.

After topping their respective groups in the Second Round, Senegal and Egypt were drawn against each other in the playoff to determine which of the two nations will participate in the final tournament in Qatar later this year.

The fixtures in this Third Round of African qualifying demonstrate how difficult it is to qualify from this region.

As well as Senegal versus Egypt, this round also sees Cameroon face Algeria, DR Congo versus Morocco, Mali versus Tunisia, and Nigeria against Ghana. Only five of the ten teams will make it.

Klopp realised the importance of the game and has once again shown how much he respects his players’ work with their nations at international level.

When it came to Salah and Mane, the Liverpool boss effectively treated the two-legged playoff between Senegal and Egypt as he would an important Liverpool game.

He rested both Salah and Mane ahead of it so they would be fit, firing, and ready to go. They both sat on the sidelines as Liverpool faced Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup last week.

“Mo felt his foot again from the Brighton game,” Klopp said after his side won the quarterfinal 1-0.

“Not massive, but it was clear he would not play in a game like this [versus Forest].

“Then at that moment, it was clear that we would not use Sadio for the game either, because the game is too big in Africa and I would not be twice the one to be doing things which could be misunderstood.”

Klopp alluded to his misunderstood comment at the start of the year, and also clarified later that Salah was left out due to the slight injury, and Mane was left out due to the upcoming international game.

He may even have left Salah out had he not been injured, who knows, as Liverpool were still able to field a forward line that included the considerable talent of Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmno while also having January signing Luis Diaz on the bench.

There is also the consideration that Mane and Salah may have, understandably, had half an eye on the World Cup qualification game anyway.

Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl recently commented that he left Polish centre-back, Jan Bednarek, out of their game against Manchester City as his focus was already elsewhere with Poland having an important World Cup qualification game this week.

“He is ok. He has a big game for Poland next week and it seems to me that he is not 100 per cent with his mind for us here today,” the Austrian manager said last week.

“I didn’t want to take a risk that perhaps in some moments he didn’t want to take the last step to hurt himself. We need everyone in this game.”

This isn’t to say Bednarek or other players wouldn’t give 100% ahead of important international games, but it does show there is more to consider in football than the club game.

While Liverpool’s season is the most important thing to Klopp, by an infinite margin, he recognises that acknowledging players’ desire to play for their country, and what these games mean to the people of those nations, can, in the long term, have a positive effect on morale at Liverpool.

After Mane’s Senegal triumphed at Afcon, it’s looking like Salah’s Egypt will get their own back in this World Cup qualification game as they are 1-0 up after the first leg.

Either way, both players are fit and firing to give their all across these two games thanks to their manager’s acknowledgement of this big game in Africa.