Jurgen Klopp has recalled stepping between Andy Robertson and Sadio Mane after a heated row during Liverpool's title-winning 2019-20 season, saying he walked in and told both players to stop arguing. The clash came at half-time in a game against Aston Villa when Liverpool were 1-0 down, and Robertson later admitted he had told Mane to "f--- off".
Robertson said Mane thought he had said "f--- you," adding that it was a miscommunication and a language barrier issue. "Sadio thought I said one thing. I definitely didn’t say that," he said in the documentary by The Anfield Wrap titled One Of Us: Becoming Andy Robertson. Robertson said he was left thinking, "What did I do here?," because he was usually the one trying to calm Mane down on the pitch and help him.
Klopp said he stepped into the dressing-room exchange and told the pair, "Stop it!" before asking whether they could play together on one wing in the second half or whether Liverpool needed to change. Robertson said the manager had had enough and told them, "Will you both shut up now!" after which, he said, they sat there "like good little boys."
The account offers a glimpse of the tension inside a side that went on to finish the season as champions. It also sits alongside Klopp's view of Robertson as a player he did not fully know when Liverpool signed him from Hull in 2017. Klopp said he could see Robertson's offensive potential, but also saw defensive weaknesses, saying the left back was involved in so many goals Hull conceded at the far post.
Klopp said the move taught him how much there was to learn about a player beyond the first impression. He said he told Robertson he liked everything he was doing offensively but did not like the defensive side, and that if Robertson agreed to work on it, they would have a lot of fun together. That is the backdrop to the row: a title-winning dressing room, a manager trying to keep it together, and two players who, for a moment, were less concerned with the next half than with being heard.
