Jurgen Klopp has been slammed and told to stop deluding himself for his decision to substitute Sadio Mane in Liverpool's 7-0 victory over Crystal Palace by BBC Sport pundit Garth Crooks.
Having ended a nine-game scoring drought earlier in the game, the forward was visibly angered when withdrawn for Mohamed Salah shortly before the hour-mark.
And Crooks has hit out at Klopp for the decision, insisting the Reds boss is risking the Senegal international looking to leave the club.
"A note of caution for Klopp: don't mess Sadio Mane around," he said. "He's been the Reds' best forward for over a season and if Klopp is going to substitute him, especially when he's in such fine goalscoring mood, he needs to let him know well in advance.
"Watching Mane come off muttering his frustrations isn't a good look and Klopp is deluding himself if he thinks such things don't matter.
"And he should never think for one minute that the big European clubs aren't watching his every move."
* Take our 30-second Liverpool transfer survey and let us know what Jurgen Klopp needs to do in the January window.
Crooks made the claim in his weekly BBC Sport Team of the Week column, despite the fact Mane wasn't named in his XI.
Four Liverpool players did make the cut, however, with Joel Matip, Jordan Henderson, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino all earning special praise for their performances.
But Crooks' comments about the Cameroonian also raised eyebrows as he questioned the defender's form since moving to Liverpool in 2016.
"Matip hasn't found it easy to settle in at Liverpool, especially since the arrival of Virgil van Dijk," he said. But the Cameroonian looks very impressive alongside the combative Fabinho."
Matip was arguably in the form of Liverpool career starting alongside the Dutchman as the Reds stormed to Champions League success over Tottenham Hotspur in 2019, with mainly injuries keeping the defender out of Klopp's starting XI since he moved to Anfield.
In a now-deleted line from his column, Crooks also claimed Matip had 'survived one or two scary moments' against Tottenham last week, completely over-looking the fact the defender missed the game through injury.
