Sports
FSG must sell Liverpool flop who lost the ball 13x
Liverpool dropped points for the fourth Premier League match in a row with a frustrating 1-1 draw against bottom-three side Burnley at Anfield on Saturday.
Arne Slot‘s Reds took the lead through Florian Wirtz, who brilliantly found the top corner with a sublime reverse finish, but a second-half strike from Marcus Edwards secured a point for the away team.
Wirtz has now scored four goals in his last five matches in all competitions for the Reds, as the Germany international looks to justify the £116m fee that was paid to sign him from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer window.
Whilst the German star impressed, it was not the best day at the office for Dominik Szoboszlai, who missed a penalty when the score was 0-0 in the first half.
Why Dominik Szoboszlai should not be criticised
The Hungarian central midfielder deserved criticism at the start of the week when his decision to attempt a backheel in his own box gifted Adam Phillips a goal against Barnsley in the FA Cup on Monday.
However, he should not be given too much criticism for his performance against Burnley on Saturday, even though he missed a penalty, as he was unfortunate with the spot kick, which was struck well onto the woodwork.
Per Sofascore, Szoboszlai created two chances, including one ‘big chance’, completed two of his three dribbles, and completed 93% of his attempted passes in the match, which shows that his general play in possession was impressive.
The central midfield star also won four of his five ground duels and his only aerial battle, without being dribbled past a single time, showing his strength and quality off the ball.
It was, therefore, a decent all-round performance from Szoboszlai and not one that he deserves criticism for because of an unfortunate penalty miss, before Liverpool eventually took the lead anyway.
The Liverpool flop who must be sold this month
There is a Liverpool flop, however, who should finally be sold by FSG this month after another disappointing performance from him against Burnley this weekend.
Ibrahima Konate has started all 22 of the club’s matches in the Premier League this season, per Sofascore, but he has failed to prove himself to be a reliable defender in that time.
The France international was fortunate that Alisson was alert to make a fine save to prevent him from scoring an own goal, as he played Burnley onside before sliding the ball towards his own net.
Konate was made to pay, though, when he was far too slow to react to Edwards’ run into the box, and he was unable to close him down quickly enough to stop the English forward’s shot from finding the far corner for the equaliser.
The 26-year-old dud, who lost possession 13 times in the match (Sofascore), was fortunate to only be culpable for one goal, instead of two, in what was another sloppy defensive display, which is why he was even worse than Szoboszlai, who had a good game outside of his penalty miss.
|
Konate (PL) |
24/25 |
25/26 |
|---|---|---|
|
Appearances |
31 |
22 |
|
Clean sheets |
11 |
5 |
|
Fouls per game |
0.9 |
1.0 |
|
Error led to shot |
2 |
3 |
|
Error led to goal |
1 |
0 |
|
Penalties committed |
0 |
1 |
As you can see in the table above, Konate has already made more errors that have led to shots, goals, or penalties in 22 Premier League games this season than he did in 31 outings in the top-flight last term.
Earlier this season, Liverpool podcaster and writer Eddie Gibbs also described him as “Liverpool’s most alarming fault line” who “looks like a footballer fighting his own reflection”, which is backed up by his statistics across the two campaigns.
His contract at Anfield is due to expire in the summer, which means that he is set to leave for nothing, and that is why FSG should finally cash in on him in the current January transfer window.
Konate’s downturn in form this season in the Premier League suggests that the club should not offer him a new deal, hence why they should sell him now to make some money instead of losing the centre-back for nothing.
Liverpool ready to sign £100m Szoboszlai upgrade & he’s “better than Rice”
Liverpool have identified a top Premier League midfielder to revamp Slot’s struggling midfield.
Therefore, FSG must test the market to see if any teams would be willing to spend some money to sign Konate now, before they lose him on a free transfer in the summer.
