Jamie Carragher responds after Djimi Traore challenges his comments on one Liverpool player | OneFootball

Djimi Traore has challenged his former Liverpool teammate Jamie Carragher over the latter’s criticism of current Reds defender Ibrahima Konate.

The pundit called out our number 5 over his defending for Erling Haaland’s goal in our 3-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday and said (via Sky Sports) that the 26-year-old has ‘gone missing’ in several games this season and has been ‘a big problem’ in away matches.

It wasn’t the first time that the Bootle native took aim at the Frenchman in recent months, having described the centre-back’s performance against Bournemouth in August as ‘absolutely shocking‘.

Traore challenges Carragher over Konate criticism

Traore felt compelled to take to X and voice his disagreement with Carragher over the latter’s critical observations about Konate.

The former Mali international posted (with some grammatical corrections made): ‘My dear friend @Carra23, normally I agree with your opinion most of the time about football in general, but this time I disagree about your [criticism of] Ibou Konaté’s performances.

‘Last year he was one of the best centre-backs in the Premier League. This season all the LFC team have underperformed.’

Carragher didn’t take umbrage at Traore challenging his views as he calmly replied: ‘That’s absolutely fine, my dear friend!’

(Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

Konate’s performances have been worryingly inconsistent

It’s not just the Sky Sports pundit who’s been vocal in his criticism of Konate’s performances this season, with others also taking aim at the 26-year-old, who to be fair had shown improvement in recent matches.

However, the Frenchman will have been disappointed to have been beaten so easily in the air by Haaland for Man City’s first goal yesterday, while he was also impetuous with his positioning for the incident which resulted in the home side being awarded a contentious penalty.

Traore is right in saying that the former RB Leipzig man was outstanding throughout Liverpool’s Premier League title triumph last term, but our number 5 hasn’t shown the same consistency in the first three months of the current campaign.

Nor does it help that Konate is into the final eight months of his contract at Anfield, with speculation over a potential move to Real Madrid refusing to go away as he approaches a major crossroads over his future.

We’ve seen over the past four years just how magnificent the France defender can be when he’s at his best – hopefully he’ll show that on a more frequent basis after the international break. LFC will need him to do so.

You can watch Slot’s full post-Man City press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube: