Ibrahima Konate humiliated as Arne Slot loses patience with Real Madrid target

Arne Slot took Ibrahima Konate out of Liverpool's game against Nottingham Forest on Saturday after another woeful display.

Liverpool went two goals down against Forest after Murillo's controversial first-half opener was allowed to stand and Nicolo Savona doubled the visiting team's lead within seconds of the restart. Slot reacted to Savona's goal by hooking Konate after just 55 minutes.

The France international, who is in the final year of his contract at Anfield and is being linked with a summer move to Real Madrid, is having a poor season. He's produced several under-par performances and faced criticism from the likes of Jamie Carragher.

Hugo Ekitike replaced Konate on Saturday, as former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson joked on BBC Radio 5 Live: "The way Konate has played today, I reckon Ekitike could even drop in there and do a better job."

Konate's season started terribly; he defended poorly in the 4-2 win against Bournemouth on the opening day, and his form hasn't picked up much since then.

The defender's struggles have coincided with rumors of a summer move to Madrid, just 12 months after his former teammate, Trent Alexander-Arnold, ran down his contract to do the same.

The Reds have struggled without Alexander-Arnold, but Carragher doesn't think the idea of losing Konate will worry Liverpool's hierarchy too much.

"I’d like him to stay, but if he doesn’t stay, Liverpool will sign someone else. Liverpool won’t fall apart if Konate leaves," Carragher recently told the Daily Mail.

"He's not Virgil van Dijk. He's a good center-back who you hope will sign, but if he doesn’t want to sign, Liverpool will be absolutely fine.

"He's a very good center-back, he's a title winner at Liverpool, he's played in the Champions League final against Real Madrid. He's obviously a quality center-back.

"It's not poor management [if he goes for free]. You can't physically make somebody sign a contract. Then it's your decision, do you keep him to the length of his contract or do you sell him?"

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