Arne Slot responds to Ibrahima Konate criticism amid Real Madrid transfer links
Below is a summary of the full article. Click here for the full version from Daily Express or go back to LFC Live.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot discussed Ibrahima Konate's poor recent form on Friday. 13:00, Fri, Oct 3, 2025 Updated: 13:16, Fri, Oct 3, 2025 Arne Slot was quizzed on Ibrahima Konate's form in Friday's press conference (Image: LIVERPOOL FC)Arne Slot reckons Ibrahima Konate is being unfairly singled out as Liverpool's recent poor form comes under the microscope.
The centre-back endured difficult outings in last weekend's defeat at Crystal Palace and the midweek loss to Galatasaray in the Champions League. Slot, however, has emphasised that Konate hasn't been the sole culprit for such preventable blunders over recent matches."If you lose like we did versus Galatasaray and Palace it doesn't help if you lose the ball easily," said the Reds boss about Konate, who continues to be linked with a future move to Real Madrid, in Friday's press conference."He [Konate] has been one of them, definitely not the only one because against Galatasaray, apart from penalty, maybe they got three of four moments from us losing simple balls without any pressure, which happened to him once in the Crystal Palace game and Galatasaray."If you lose a game football, there is so much focus on that moment and, all of sudden, 90 minutes have been very poor and that's not what I analyse game one more time and see what we did well and wrong."In the last two games, it has been obvious and clear we have made a few errors, not only him but others we are not used to.The defender continues to be linked with a potential move to Real Madrid (Image: GETTY)"[If you] do things people are not used to and lose a game of football then normally the manager gets criticism."Mohamed Salah's form has also come under scrutiny after the Egyptian star was benched by Slot for the game against Galatasaray, following a lacklustre performance at Palace.Despite Salah netting three goals and providing three assists in nine games this season, his inconsistency has been noticeable as Liverpool adjust to a revamped forward line.Slot defended his player, stating: "I see the same as the second part of last season, 13 goals, five from a penalty, one from a set-piece.
He is part of a team that faces different opposition from the first half of last season."If you compare how we won the away game against Man Utd when they tried to play out from the back we took the ball from them three times and scored and the game at Anfield when [Andre] Onana only went long."We don't score as many open play goals as we did in the first part of last season."This is something we work on very hard and the more we will play together in the new set-up the better we will go but we still struggle to find enough goals from open play." Read next Invalid emailWe use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. Read our Privacy Policy