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Liverpool legend John Barnes has weighed in on the perceived rivalry between Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.
Over the course of the previous three-and-a-half seasons, Mane and Salah have fashioned two-thirds of some of the prolific attacking partnerships in Liverpool’s historical past, scoring greater than 200 objectives between them and serving to encourage the membership to success within the UEFA Champions League, Premier League and FIFA Membership World Cup.
Nonetheless, regardless of their on-field success, a unfavorable notion of the duo’s relationship at Anfield has lingered within the background, with solutions of rivalry and allegations of selfishness typically being levelled towards the pair of African superstars.
Former Liverpool ahead Barnes, who’s broadly considered one of many membership’s greatest-ever gamers, addressed this notion in an unique interview with Kickoff.com through which he dismissed the concept of a rivalry between Mane and Salah, saying it’s nothing greater than a media-driven phenomenon.
“It’s all media-driven so far as I’m involved,” the previous England worldwide stated. “To my thoughts, there has by no means been, not less than in any of the groups I performed for, a contest between gamers to outdo one another.
“There is usually a competitors to be the highest scorer [of the league] however the actual competitors is to make the fitting choices, to go to the fitting folks, to attain objectives if you must.”
The 2-time FWA Footballer of the 12 months used his personal profession to focus on the roles and mentality that gamers of Mane and Salah’s calibre possess, with explicit reference to the 1989/90 season through which he outscored Liverpool’s all-time report goalscorer Ian Rush for the marketing campaign.
“I used to be the highest scorer for Liverpool in a single yr after I performed up entrance with Ian Rush,” Barnes provides. “I scored extra objectives than him, however he was at all times the primary goalscorer… Rushie was the goalscorer, I used to be the creator and I occurred to attain extra objectives than him, however it wasn’t a contest of me wanting to attain extra objectives than him.
“So, this entire concept of competitors does not exist so far as I am involved as a result of, if that exists, gamers shall be making dangerous choices for the group once they’re involved about scoring extra objectives than their companions.
“The competitors will be between Ian Rush and [former Leicester City, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur striker] Gary Lineker, for instance, who performs for one more group and who needs to attain extra objectives, however the competitors between the gamers [at the same team] does not exist. It’s utterly media-driven, and it simply creates issues.”
This text is an extract from the complete interview with John Barnes for the March 2021 version of Kick Off Journal. The most recent copy is now available in shops for R25, and can be bought on-line here.
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