As bad as Konate: Slot must axe 6/10 Liverpool star who made 0 tackles

Liverpool’s disaster has deepened, with some extent gained in opposition to Leeds United at Elland Street solely fanning the flames which have engulfed the Merseyside outfit this season, so brittle and flimsy and prone to crumbling on the slightest flash of hazard.

After the draw, shining mild Dominik Szoboszlai was breathless and incredulous, echoing, certainly, the disbelief of so lots of a Reds persuasion throughout the globe. How has it come to this? Why are the Premier League champions so incapable of finishing the fundamentals?

Szoboszlai is the cream of a withered crop on Merseyside proper now, however it’s clear, confirmed, that he cannot do it alone. Liverpool have so many strugglers, and who higher to epitomise Slot’s aspect’s collapse than Ibrahima Konate?

Ibrahima Konate’s efficiency at Elland Street

Konate, 26, is out of contract on the finish of the season, and whereas this needs to be a season of significance for the Frenchman, successful higher phrases at Anfield or canvassing his qualities for suitors from elsewhere, he has not fallen however plummeted by the wayside.

It was a pointless problem on substitute Wilfred Gnonto, and that sparked the house aspect’s comeback. This was hardly an outlier for the hulking centre-half.

However, away from essentially the most obvious blunders, Konate additionally lacks any semblance of management or confidence, and certainly Slot has received to contemplate dropping him now, with the star having began each single Premier League match thus far this season.

When are the errors going to cease? When is the storm going to abate? Konate, for all his woes this season, is just not the one Liverpool defender who’s flattering to deceive.

The truth is, the France worldwide’s scrutiny, an intense highlight beaming onto him always, is detracting from the constant issues of one other.

Liverpool celebrity might now be dropped

Virgil van Dijk has been a pillar of energy for therefore a few years at Liverpool, however we’re receiving a bitter style of life with out such a participant within the rearguard, with the 34-year-old introduced down from his indomitable self this season.

That missed deal for Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi on switch deadline day in the beginning of September continues to look extra damning, and sporting director Richard Hughes is sure to be weighing up a transfer for the England worldwide, whose contract at Selhurst Park expires in June, this winter, lest Liverpool’s disaster devolve into one thing even worse.

To say that Van Dijk, Liverpool’s supreme captain, needs to be dropped is a daring declare. Some would say brazen. Many would disagree.

Nevertheless, the Netherlands captain has been woefully out of kinds over the previous couple of months, and Konate’s error-strewn shows have disguised his personal shambolic efforts. Liverpool have been below the cosh at instances, however Van Dijk didn’t step ahead and make a deal with, not one.

He put Liverpool at risk with a careless headed backpass within the first half that required intervention from Konate, and he has misplaced the boldness and readability that has been firmly fastened for the lion’s share of his illustrious Liverpool profession.

The 34-year-old was handed a 6/10 match ranking by The Liverpool Echo, largely because of his aerial dominance, however this was hardly a convincing show from the skipper, nor was it a great illustration of his management means.

Neither centre-back has coated themselves in glory for Liverpool this season – removed from it – and with the January switch window quick approaching, it feels seemingly {that a} deal can be explored, frantically, for Palace’s Guehi or any variety of different earmarked targets who may restore some stability to a crew which have misplaced their means – and are exhibiting little signal of escaping from the lavatory.