Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has dismissed Manchester City counterpart Pep Guardiola’s claim that Sadio Mane is a diver.

And, instead of getting dragged into a psychological war ahead of the Premier League’s top two sides meeting at Anfield on Sunday, Klopp stated he was ‘not in the mood to talk about Man City’.

Mane was booked after going down in the area under a challenge by Frederic Guilbert before going on to score a stoppage-time winner at Aston Villa on Saturday, and afterwards City boss Guardiola said of the Senegal international: ‘Sometimes he’s diving, sometimes he has this talent to score incredible goals in the last minute.’

Klopp brushed it off, saying: ‘I am not 100% sure if he spoke about Sadio or us in general.

‘I didn’t hear Sadio’s name or know how we could have known so quick about any incident in the game. I can say Sadio is not a diver. There was a situation in the Aston Villa game where he got contact and went down, maybe it was not a penalty but there was contact, it’s not as if he jumped over a leg and went down.’

Klopp refused to countenance talk about Sunday’s clash with City – currently six points behind the Reds – with a Champions League home tie with Genk to negotiate.

‘I am absolutely not in the mood today to talk about Man City,’ he added.

Asked if he was banning the words ‘Manchester City’ until after Tuesday’s match Klopp said: ‘You can say the words Man City, you just cannot think about it.

‘The story the boys wrote in the last three years was only possible because we were always focused on the next game.

‘No one thinks, and I don’t have to tell them, “City is on Sunday, tomorrow is Genk.” We have bigger ambitions in this competition than tomorrow night so we have to be 100% spot on.

‘We have to make sure we get these three points and that only works if you are 100% focused on that. I don’t doubt my players at all, I would feel a bit embarrassed if I had to tell them, “Don’t think about Man City already.”‘