Jamie Carragher was critical of one Liverpool player over his involvement in one of the three goals that Manchester City scored on Sunday.
Although there’s no disputing that the home side were full value for their 3-0 win, the Reds had no luck whatsoever in many of the game’s key moments, with the two first-half goals both owing plenty to deflections and Virgil van Dijk having what would’ve been an equaliser criminally disallowed.
Giorgi Mamardashvili had saved a (harshly awarded) penalty from Erling Haaland in the first few minutes, but there was nothing the goalkeeper could do about the Norwegian’s header to open the scoring just before the half-hour mark.
Carragher criticises Konate over Haaland goal
Speaking on Sky Sports‘ Extra Time, Carragher called out Ibrahima Konate for being beaten in the air by the Man City number 9, with the ball skimming off the Frenchman’s head and diverting it kindly into the path of the 25-year-old marksman.
The pundit said: “It’s a little bit of luck for Man City, because Haaland doesn’t know too much about it, but what I don’t understand is Konate.
“I tell you what, and I’ve only just noticed this, look at Haaland’s jump compared to Konate. He’s done this thing where he’s trying to flick the ball on. Now, when I’m a defender and I flick the ball on, that’s the last resort.
“If I’m jumping at my highest point and if I can’t head it away, I’m trying to flick it on; but [Konate] is not even off the ground and he’s trying to flick it on. Go and get up as high as you can – look at Haaland – and head that ball away!
“I don’t understand at all what Konate is trying to do. There’s been no real impact from Haaland and [Konate] is trying to flick it on. Haaland gets a little bit of luck but maybe he deserves that luck the season he’s had. He’s been absolutely fantastic.”
Konate under the microscope once again
Similar to how Nico Gonzalez’s shot took a wicked deflection off Van Dijk for Man City’s second goal yesterday, the first two Man City goals came about from a combination of good fortune for them and questionable decision-making on Liverpool’s part.
Haaland got a significant slice of luck by the ball skimming off Konate’s head, but as Carragher pointed out, the Norwegian was much more proactive in getting off the ground to try and win the header than the Reds’ number 5, who ideally should be winning that duel.
The Frenchman has been subjected to some fierce criticism this season, and although he looked vastly improved in the wins over Aston Villa and Real Madrid, yesterday was definitely not one of his better outings of the campaign so far.
Aside from the opening goal, the 26-year-old’s positioning for the early penalty incident was frightening, and while Mamardashvili bailed him out that time by saving the spot kick, the defender was punished by Haaland later in the first half.
If Liverpool are to revive their inconsistent campaign after the international break, they’ll need to learn from the mistakes which have hurt them throughout the autumn and arrest the alarming rate at which they’re conceding goals (17 already in the Premier League with less than a third of the season played).
You can watch Slot’s full post-Man City press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
Noticed it myself on MotD.
Ibou clearly jumps with his body, but pulls off what can only be described as a Honey Monster impression with his neck.
It wasn’t as if Haaland had connected forcefully to stop him clearing it.
‘Most inexplicable.
Btw, has anyone put it to City fans which way round they would like the offside rule to work ?
If the Virgil goal is offside, so was the one Stones one vs Wolves.
Which is it, Pep ? Make the call and we’ll put it in writing.
Quite right, the Stones goal v Wolves should have been disallowed.
There, fixed it for you.
So we can expect the rules to remain the same across all teams from now on, can we ?
Looking forward to seeing that.
Btw. Are you official PGMOL or FIFA ?
Surely not Pep’s nom-de-plume ?
Gotta love these chaps who always “fix” things after the fact for their own advantage, wait for the heat to die down, then get back to playing around with the rules again under a pretence that it’s perfectly normal.
Quite a fall from grace should the #115 go the way the rest of the league is hoping for.
Story of the season so far, basic mistakes by central defenders, wrong decision making. It’s not only konate, van dijk as well. Manchester United first goal, van dijk, third brentford goal, van dijk. It was a nothing ball into the box we had seven players defending in around the box to Manchester city’s four. 99 times konate wins the header it goes outside the box. We should have been one nil down before this but haaland missed the penalty. Konate made another mistake which should have led to a goal.
You look at the central defence and most Liverpool fans said that we had to buy another central defender
We didn’t and it’s coming back to HAUNT us. Van dijk is 34, konate has had his head turned, he wants to join Real Madrid. Slot doesn’t trust Gomez so there’s no competition whatsoever. The criminal part is we spend 450 million but don’t see the problems ahead. Slot said a few weeks ago that we must stop conceeding goals, yet away against one of the best teams in Europe he plays wirtz and Salah. We were completely overwhelmed in midfield Salah and wirtz don’t track back, Bradley was alone and isolated, and the midfield had too much to do with us carrying passengers. Tactically inept from slot, he changed nothing until the game was lost.
We are now getting to the point of no return. A few home wins in the next fixtures wont hide the cracks.
West ham
Leeds utd
Inter Milan
Spurs
Fulham
Arsenal
Marseille
Bournemouth
Sunderland
Forest
These games will decide slots future at Liverpool. Can we keep a clean sheet in any of these games. I think slot will be sacked during this lot.