Liverpool’s Sadio Mane “is not a diver” according to Reds’ boss Jurgen Klopp, despite the forward being booked for the offence at the weekend.
Mane, 27, was cautioned in the 37th minute of Liverpool’s 2-1 win over Aston Villa on Saturday.
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola then appeared to suggest the Senegal international was “sometimes diving”.
“I am not 100% sure if he spoke about Sadio or us in general,” said Klopp in a news conference on Monday.
“I didn’t hear Sadio’s name or know how he [Guardiola] 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.”
Liverpool are top of the Premier League, six points ahead of second-placed City with the two teams meeting at Anfield on Sunday.
However, the German said he “was not in the mood to talk about Man City” as the Reds play Belgian side Genk in the Champions League first.
Asked if he was banning the words ‘Manchester City’ until after Tuesday’s match, Klopp replied: “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’.
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“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’.”