Jurgen Klopp Furious After Sadio Mane Incident, Questions Man Utd's Penalty Record [Watch]

Jurgen Klopp backed Sadio Mane and slammed on-field referee Andre Marriner for his decisions involving the Senegal national player after Liverpool lost 1-0 to Southampton in the Premier League on Monday. An irked Liverpool boss insisted that his talented forward is not a diver, while questioning Manchester United's penalty record.

With the loss, Liverpool have made way for Manchester United to go at the top of the table in the 2020-21 Premier League, provided Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side won their next game.

"The best situations were when Sadio had the ball. Anyone who ever again says Sadio Mane is a diver is the biggest joke in the world. This boy tries to stay on his feet. There were two situations where other teams will get a penalty for it. The handball, I do now know who will explain that to me," Klopp told Sky Sports after Liverpool's loss at St. Mary's Stadium.

Out of Manchester United's 30+ goals scored in the ongoing campaign, five have come through penalties.

"If this boy went down easy, we could have had a penalty in this game and a stonewall penalty in the last game [against Newcastle]. But what Andre Marriner did with Sadio Mane tonight, I'm not sure that's OK, to be honest. He tried absolutely everything, a few great challenges with [James] Ward-Prowse, but there were a lot of situations which were free-kicks as well," Klopp said.

"The last situation where he goes down in the box if you see that, he [Walker-Peters] hits him again with his left foot. It’s another penalty. I hear now that Man United had more penalties in two years than I had in five-and-a-half years. I’ve no idea if that’s my fault, or how that can happen," he added.

However, Klopp also mentioned that the penalty decisions against the Reds should not take anything away from Southampton as the home side was the better team.

"This does not make our performance better, it should not take anything away from Southampton, but in these situations, we were very unfortunate at least," said Klopp.