Slot must axe 6/10 Liverpool star who made 0 tackles

Liverpool‘s crisis has deepened, with a point gained against Leeds United at Elland Road only fanning the flames that have engulfed the Merseyside outfit this season, so brittle and flimsy and susceptible to crumbling at the slightest flash of danger.

After the draw, shining light Dominik Szoboszlai was breathless and incredulous, echoing, surely, the disbelief of so many of a Reds persuasion across the globe. How has it come to this? Why are the Premier League champions so incapable of completing the basics?

Szoboszlai is the cream of a withered crop on Merseyside right now, but it’s clear, proven, that he can’t do it alone. Liverpool have so many strugglers, and who better to epitomise Slot’s side’s collapse than Ibrahima Konate?

Ibrahima Konate’s performance at Elland Road

Konate, 26, is out of contract at the end of the season, and while this should be a season of importance for the Frenchman, winning better terms at Anfield or canvassing his qualities for suitors from elsewhere, he has not fallen but plummeted by the wayside.

It was a needless challenge on substitute Wilfred Gnonto, and that sparked the home side’s comeback. This was hardly an outlier for the hulking centre-half.

But, away from the most glaring blunders, Konate also lacks any semblance of control or confidence, and surely Slot has got to consider dropping him now, with the star having started every single Premier League match so far this season.

When are the mistakes going to stop? When is the storm going to abate? Konate, for all his woes this season, is not the only Liverpool defender who is flattering to deceive.

In fact, the France international’s scrutiny, an intense spotlight beaming onto him at all times, is detracting from the consistent problems of another.

Liverpool superstar could now be dropped

Virgil van Dijk has been a pillar of strength for so many years at Liverpool, but we are receiving a bitter taste of life without such a player in the rearguard, with the 34-year-old brought down from his indomitable self this season.

That missed deal for Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi on transfer deadline day at the start of September continues to look more damning, and sporting director Richard Hughes is bound to be weighing up a move for the England international, whose contract at Selhurst Park expires in June, this winter, lest Liverpool’s crisis devolve into something even worse.

Advertisement

To say that Van Dijk, Liverpool’s supreme captain, should be dropped is a bold claim. Some would say brazen. Many would disagree.

However, the Netherlands captain has been woefully out of sorts over the past couple of months, and Konate’s error-strewn displays have disguised his own shambolic efforts. Liverpool were under the cosh at times, but Van Dijk did not step forward and make a tackle, not one.

He put Liverpool in danger with a careless headed backpass in the first half that required intervention from Konate, and he has lost the confidence and clarity that has been firmly fixed for the lion’s share of his illustrious Liverpool career.

The 34-year-old was handed a 6/10 match rating by The Liverpool Echo, largely due to his aerial dominance, but this was hardly a convincing display from the skipper, nor was it a good representation of his leadership ability.

Neither centre-back has covered themselves in glory for Liverpool this season – far from it – and with the January transfer window fast approaching, it feels likely that a deal will be explored, frantically, for Palace’s Guehi or any number of other earmarked targets who might restore some balance to a team that have lost their way – and are showing little sign of escaping from the bog.

Related

The new Trent: Liverpool shortlist “one of the best players in the world”

Liverpool have not replaced their iconic full-back’s presence down the right channel.