Defiant Mane brushes off Guardiola dive claims

Liverpool forward Sadio Mane has hit back at Pep Guardiola’s “diving” accusations and insists the he will not change his style of play. The Manchester City boss first made the claim last weekend, when the Senegal international was booked after going down in the penalty area following a challenge by Aston Villa’s Frederic Guilbert.
Manager Jurgen Klopp jumped to his defence and Guardiola subsequently rowed back on the comments, saying they were part of a longer speech in which he praised the forward and it was “far away from my intention to say Sadio is this type of player because I admire him a lot”.
Mane, unaware of the subsequent climb down at the time having played in the 2-1 Champions League victory over Genk, was unmoved by Guardiola’s initial criticism as he believes if there is contact he has a right to go down.
And he offered a sarcastic response to the City boss ahead of the two sides meeting at Anfield this Sunday, by suggesting he would “dive” again in the future if it meant that he would win a penalty.
Mane then reverted back to Klopp’s insistence that he does not dive and claimed that Guardiola is being “clever” by attempting to get into the mind of the referee ahead of this weekend’s showdown.
When asked if it has made him contemplate a change in his style, Mane said: “It’s what I want to keep doing. If I get a penalty, yeah it’s a penalty. If no penalty, no penalty, but (it) will never change the way I’m playing or the way I’m doing my things. “The only thing I can say I will be for sure ready for the team, to give everything possible, and to help my team.”
City are the only team to defeat Liverpool in their last 50 league matches and Mane has described this latest clash as one that is “really, really important” to secure a result from.
A win for the Reds would move them nine points clear of the reigning champions at the top of the Premier League.