He was not the only one Osimhen exposed — Liverpool coach defends star defender

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has deflected some criticism of centre-back Ibrahima Konate, insisting that the France international was not the only one in their 1-0 defeat to Galatasaray. 

Konate has been far from his usual dependable self this season. He has made high-profile errors on multiple occasions this season. 

In the defeat to Crystal Palace, he made two errors leading to shots. And against Galatasaray, he made a big error, which allowed Victor Osimhen through on goal. The Nigerian drew a save from Allison, which ultimately caused the Brazilian to sustain an injury. 

However, Konate was not the only one who made a mistake on the night, as a clumsy tackle from Dominik Szoboszlai resulted in the penalty, which Osimhen converted. A point which Slot was sure to emphasise. 

The Dutch tactician had always maintained that his team lost the game due to avoidable errors. However, when questioned about the portion of blame owed to Konate, he clarified that the Frenchman was not the only one who played poorly. 

"If you are losing a game of football, it doesn’t help if you lose the ball a few times very easily," Slot said, per Goal. "Ibou has been one of them, but definitely not the only one. 

“Against Galatasaray, apart from the penalty, maybe they got three or four other moments, all from us losing simple balls without any pressure, which happened to him once in the Palace game and once against Galatasaray.

"If you lose, there is so much focus on that moment and, all of a sudden, 90 minutes have been very poor. That’s not the way I analyse a game when I watch it back. 

“I see what we did well and what we did wrong. In the last two games, it has been obvious and clear we have made a few errors, not only him, but also others we are not used to. If you do things that people are not used t,o then normally the manager gets criticised."

Meanwhile, a contributing factor to the criticisms directed at Konate is his contract situation and the Real Madrid links. Fans of the Reds have accused the 26-year-old of being distracted by the attraction from Spain.