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Paul Scholes has laid into Liverpool’s defenders, and Ibrahima Konate in particular, having accused the Frenchman of ‘almost giving up’ during the Reds’ latest defeat.
Arne Slot’s side remains in a concerning slump, having lost a fourth Premier League game in a row on Saturday after falling to a dismal 3-2 defeat at Brentford. Liverpool has now lost five of its last six games in all competitions, with major concerns about what is going wrong following the summer overhaul of the squad.
Having previously held a five-point lead in the title race, the Reds now find themselves seven points off current leader Arsenal, having already lost as many league games as they did for the entirety of last season.
One of the biggest concerns lies in Liverpool’s defense, with the Reds having already conceded 14 league goals in nine games, while only keeping two clean sheets in 14 games across all competitions.
A lot of attention has been paid to Liverpool’s full-backs, with Milos Kerkez’s performances in particular receiving plenty of criticism, but it’s Konate who caught Scholes’ attention at Brentford.
“He [Kerkez] has struggled and I think both center-backs [Konate and Virgil van Dijk] have,” Scholes said on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast.
“I thought Konate was brilliant against Manchester United and then on Saturday night [against Brentford], when he’s running back against that lad [Kevin Schade], I was thinking, ‘He’ll catch him him, he’ll get him!” and he almost gave up.
“It’s like they’ve almost lost the determination to stop goals going in.
“I think they will always score goals with the quality they’ve got and, look, it’s still early in the season.
“But losing four league games already, teams don’t really do that and win the league anymore. You’re talking two or three games.”
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That’s not the only area where Scholes believes Liverpool has a problem. The former United midfielder also feels the Reds are missing Alisson Becker, with his deputy Giorgi Mamardashvili having conceded eight goals in his last four games.
“There’s something not right there [at Liverpool],” Scholes said.
“When you’ve got a good team, you try and strengthen it. When you win a league, you try and bring in players. For some reason, it’s just not happening.
“I think the goalkeeper is a big miss. We’ve seen how important ‘keepers are becoming, definitely, and Alisson’s a big miss.
“I’m not saying this ‘keeper [Giorgi Mamardashvili] is playing badly, but it seems like every shot is going in. It’s not a good trait.”
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