Ibrahima Konate agreement reached as Liverpool sent clear Real Madrid warning

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Ferdinand has argued that owing to persistent speculation linking him with a Madrid switch, Konate is being made a scapegoat amid the uncertainty."There's no way that Konate has a bad performance last season and he's getting the headline treatment," he said. "It's only because of the interest from Real Madrid, and there's going to be disgruntled fans or people in the media that support Liverpool who are going to now start pointing the finger and blaming him."Or, whenever there's a little mistake here, and if there's blame to be put between two people, then he'll probably get it now because of that situation." At the back, Liverpool have struggled badly this campaign - while their knack for late goals has been overshadowed by shipping crucial strikes in the dying moments.The Reds have fought back to draw level in their previous two Premier League outings only to be sucker-punched in added time, with Estevao Willian's winner echoing Eddie Nketiah's heart-breaking winner a week earlier.

The ex-Liverpool and Everton centre-half explained: "I look from a centre-back's point of view and Konate is getting a bit of stick at the start of the season, let's be honest."But you've got to remember he has got to play a different way now. What I mean by that is that he's having to defend in the channel now because Frimpong or Conor Bradley are out of position or Szoboszlai is out of midfield."Teams exploited that channel and Konate has got to go out and defend and I'm telling you now, from a centre-back's point of view, you do not want to go out there and defend as a right-back.

It's hard, there's a reason you're not out there, you're not quick enough."Trent would go into midfield but I always thought he was there. I'm telling you now, no centre-back wants to defend there and there's a reason you play centre-back and not right-back."Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content.