Ibrahima Konate. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)placeholder image
Ibrahima Konate. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Liverpool suffered a 4-1 loss against PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League to add more pressure on Arne Slot.
Arne Slot explained that Ibrahima Konate’s substitution in Liverpool’s chastening loss to PSV Eindhoven was tactical rather than a consequence of his latest error.
Konate has been well below the standard required this campaign. For PSV’s third goal, the centre-back’s miskick allowed the visitors through, with Couhaib Driouech netting.
Shortly after, Konate was substituted and replaced by Federico Chiesa. Slot revealed that he needed another forward on the pitch to try to salvage something from the game and felt Konate had delivered a good performance. The Liverpool boss said: “I found that one difficult because up until the moment you were just describing I think he [Konate] played a good game.
“But, if you go 3-1 down, I think the thing that I have always done – and what I will keep doing – is then bringing an extra attacker in. I found that hard because I knew the outside world would probably then focus even more on the error he made, but I think it was the decision I had to make. Unfortunately it didn’t lead to anything except they scored the 4-1.”
Individual errors were yet against Liverpool’s downfall. PSV opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the sixth minute after Virgil van Dijk handled inside the box from a corner. Meanwhile, Mo Salah was beaten far too easily in the build-up for the Dutch side’s second. However, Slot insisted that it was not a time to point fingers.
He added: “I think it is always about the team and I think we can all do better, individuals and the three [moments] you are talking about but I think this goes for everyone, including myself. I don’t think this is the time to emphasise on individual errors. It is more the time to talk about the team instead of the individual errors because individual errors are made in football.
“We have to make sure that if we make them then we react or make it up so that it doesn’t lead to a goal and if it does lead to a goal that we are good enough then to come back into the game. That’s a team thing and not an individual thing.”
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