The central defender was replaced after 56 minutes of play, Ryan Gravenberch being the ally of Virgil Van Dijk for the rest of the meeting. Liverpool announced that the player would undergo additional examinations to determine the severity of his quadriceps injury.
The Frenchman seemed to contract the disease at the beginning of the second period, his coach having found that Konaté was very popular. Slot said he was planning to replace, regardless of Konaté's state of health. The Dutchman replaced his central defender with the midfielder Curtis Jones, Gravenberch thus allowing a better quality of play in depth.
Slot said, “I don't know if it's a serious injury, but what I know is that he was getting a little bit and when I asked him, he told me that he felt a slight feeling in the quadriceps. »»
“Then, for me, everything started, because in another sprint, you never know if it will be fine. »»
“It was also a replacement that I had already in mind, perhaps for a few minutes or a little later, because the right central defender had a lot of ball possession and we had to create space from this position. We all know that Ryan (Gravenberch) is quite good in this area. »»
“It was perhaps normal for him to go out early, but it was clear that I had to take him out because he was coming. »»
Livepool short of defense
A long -term injury will again question the Reds about their transfers this summer, favoring offensive reinforcements to the defensive.
The departure of Jarell Quansah at Bayer Leverkusen left the Reds with only three recognized central defenders: Konaté, Van Dijk and Joe Gomez. The transfer of the Captain of Crystal Palace, Marc Guehi, failed the D -Day after the president of the Eagles, Steve Parish, decided to withdraw the contract, giving priority to this season and potentially leaving the English central defender to leave for free at the expiration of his contract in 2026.
Gomez does not seem to be part of his manager's plans for the future. The 28-year-old was little present during the pre-season, suffering from an Achilles tendon injury. The rumors of a transfer to AC Milan surprised given the lack of depth of the Reds in this position.
Slot took advantage of the off -season to experiment with Gravenberch and Wataru Endo as auxiliaries. Central defenders. Given his decision to replace his midfielder in defense, it seems that he maintains this idea if Konaté is dismissed from the field.
Liverpool's permeable defense under increased pressure
Saturday's defeat against Chelsea has been the first time that the many Liverpool offensive options have been cited as the cause of their problems this season. Gary Neville took advantage of his post-match podcast to castigate the performance of Cody Gakpo, Florian Wirtz and Mohamed Salah in the second half. According to the XG, Liverpool should have won the match, and his defense was certainly not responsible for the powerful strike of Moises Caicedo which opened the scoring.
However, disturbing signs appear for the Reds. They only retained their inviolated cage twice this season: one against Burnley, recently promoted, and a counter Arsenal, in a match where Mikel Arteta was criticized for his defensive approach.
Neither Milos Kerkez nor Jeremie Frimpong managed to win on both sides of the defense. Conor Bradley was preferred to Dutch during the last outings.
Konaté and Van Dijk were supposed to constitute one of the pillars on which Liverpool could rely to train his new players this season. Even if they seemed less solid this season, a rupture of this duo would be difficult to welcome by the leaders of Anfield.
