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When Hugo Ekitike broke the deadlock for Liverpool, sending the traveling fans delirious, it looked to be exactly what Arne Slot needed. His team, out of nowhere, quickly found itself not one goal ahead, but two.
Ekitike grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and took his chance — in the team, and in front of goal. At that time, it looked like this would be a quiet, run-of-the-mill second half. Mohamed Salah, of course, had other ideas at the final whistle. And one of his teammates ensured that was the case even before that.
Instead of Liverpool seeing through a comfortable 2-0 win, a collapse instigated by Ibrahima Konate ensued. He, in particular, was nervous all game long.
For some reason, he decided to lunge in and make a sliding challenge near the touchline when he should have stayed on his feet. After a VAR review, the referee, Anthony Taylor, pointed to the spot.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin netted from 12 yards and then Anton Stach leveled. Dominik Szoboszlai looked to have got Konate off the hook, but then Ao Tanaka had the final word deep into stoppage time.
Konate, in pretty much every game he plays at the moment, is making errors.
Once more, he looked decent enough if a little jittery for a while here, but ended up making a calamitous error. It felt imminent for a while before it eventually happened.
"Unfortunately for him, he does a lot of things well, but he has been a bit too much on the crime scene," Slot said in his post-match press conference.
"He has been involved in goals we have conceded. If you are a center-back, that happens in football.
"Today it was a tackle that came from effort, he tried to block the cross, the ball went out and then there was contact. The question is if VAR should intervene; a lot of people would say that is correct."
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With Conor Bradley fit again — albeit suspended for Brighton next weekend as a result of his booking — there is a genuine alternative to Konate. Joe Gomez, no longer required at full-back, seems an obvious solution.
He isn’t perfect but the Liverpool number two is in considerably better form. Konate looks like he needs to reset, and he has for a while.
When Liverpool takes to the field against Inter Milan on Tuesday, it would be a surprise if there weren’t changes, for rotational purposes, if nothing else. Gomez for Konate should be one of them.
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