Michael Owen believes that Sadio Mane could have chosen to stay on his feet when he had the chance to go down to win a penalty because Mohamed Salah is Liverpool's designated penalty taker and not him.
Mane has been contacted in the penalty box in both of Liverpool's last two matches, the weekend win over Sheffield United and Thursday's defeat to Chelsea.
On neither occasion did he go down under the contact, attempting to reach the ball as he felt he had a chance to score himself.
Liverpool fans were begging Mane to go down on social media after the fact, with the winger spurning the opportunity to win a much-needed penalty for his team.
Mane, though, stayed on his feet, the chance never materialised in both situations, and a penalty was not awarded as referees tend to only give fouls for players that fall to the floor.
And Owen has a wild theory that could explain why Mane is choosing not to hit the floor when he is contacted in the penalty box, and it all relates to his inner-squad competition with Salah.
"I couldn’t believe he didn’t go down there and look, I’m not advocating he does," Owen said on Optus Sport.
"It was a great touch and he possibly thought he might get a chance at the end of it ... but he did something similar a week ago [against Sheffield United].
"I just wonder, and it might be a little bit of devious thoughts creeping into my head, Mo Salah is the penalty taker in this team, and if he (Mane) thinks he’s getting a chance to score he thinks ‘well I’m going to score, if I don’t stay on my feet, Mo Salah’s going to get another penalty.
"These players have been going for the golden boot for the past couple of seasons. It might be a wild sort of theory, but the competitive nature of him and Mo Salah. We’ve seen them not passing to each other when one of them is in a much better position to the other.
"We’re seeing a little bit of selfishness, we’re seeing a little bit of disgruntled behaviour - Mo Salah shaking his head [when he was subbed off].
"I just think a couple of times there, I’ve seen Mane go down for those kind of opportunities...and (to not do it) two games on the spin? It just made me think a little bit."
Mane and Salah shared the Golden Boot with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with 22 goals in the 2018/19 season, whereas Salah won the Golden Boot the year before and outscored Mane 19 to 18 in the 2019/20 season.
