Former Liverpool star Roberto Firmino has revealed he often had to place peacemaker between Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.
Firmino, Salah and Mane formed a deadly partnership during Jurgen Klopp's reign, which saw the club win all the major trophies, including their first Premier League title.
However, all was not as smooth as it seem and there was an incident in a game against Burnley where Mane expressed his frustration with Salah not passing him the ball after he got substituted.
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"I knew those guys very well, maybe better than anyone," Firmino wrote in his book, "Sí Señor: My Liverpool Years."
"It was me out there on the field, right in the middle of them. I saw first-hand the looks, the grimaces, the body language, the dissatisfaction when one was mad at the other. I could feel it. I was the link between them in our attacking play and the firefighter in those moments.
"For many, that disagreement [against Burnley in August 2019] between Sadio and Mo was the first; for some, the first and last. But I knew it had been brewing since the previous season, 2018-19. My instinct and my duty was to defuse the situation between them. Pour water on the fire - never petrol."
"They were never best friends; each kept himself to himself. It was rare to see the two of them talking and I'm not sure if that had to do with the Egypt-Senegal rivalry in African competitions. I truly don't know. But they also never stopped talking, never severed ties. They always acted with the utmost professionalism.
"I never took sides. That's why they love me: I always passed the ball to both; my preference was for the team's victory. Many focus on what I brought to the attacking trio in tactical terms, but perhaps just as important was the human element: my role as peacemaker, unifier. If I didn't do that, it would be nothing but storms between the two of them on the field."
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