Konate awful as Liverpool set up another Anfield comeback in the Champions League | OneFootball

Liverpool are bound to overturn their one-goal Champions League deficit against Galatasaray, but a second defeat of the season in Istanbul was made even worse by a shambolic Ibrahima Konate performance.

Konate has endured a difficult season for Liverpool. There have been some hilariously poor performances, and he couldn’t handle Victor Osimhen in Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat against Galatasaray.

He won’t get dropped. He never gets dropped. In fairness to Arne Slot, we’re really not sure who he could drop him for. And despite his poor showing against Osimhen, he will likely be on the winning side in the second leg next week.

Galatasaray are a dangerous team with some excellent players. They are comfortably the best team in Turkey. But they are not in contention to win the Champions League. The last 16 is their ceiling. For all of their Premier League woes, Liverpool are genuine contenders. A last-16 exit would be a disaster.

We expect Liverpool to overturn a one-goal deficit at Anfield against anyone, but against a Galatasaray team with a very shaky defence, they should iron them out easily enough.

Just because they should, does not mean they will.

Liverpool might have a better team on paper, but the two matches this season tell us that Okan Buruk has Slot’s number. And while paper tells us the Reds are superior, we are not sure their individual talent is currently capable of producing any individual brilliance, certainly not any more so than Victor Osimhen, Baris Yilmaz, or Noa Lang.

And for all of the mistakes in Davinson Sanchez, who will miss the second leg through suspension, we witnessed the absolute worst of Konate in Tuesday’s last-16 first leg in Istanbul.

His biggest moment will go down as ‘his’ goal that was disallowed in the second half, but there were some very concerning moments defensively, reminiscent of his form in the run-up to Christmas when he was a complete and utter shambles.

“Defensively a horrorshow” was the fair shout from Steve Sidwell on co-comms when referring to Liverpool as a whole, but most was coming through the French centre-back.

Galatasaray had a disallowed goal of their own that stemmed from a Konate error and concluded with a Konate error. Yilmaz was adjudged to be offside, which he was, but his involvement was certainly debatable.

Even at Konate’s lowest ebb this season, Slot has consistently viewed him as undroppable, so he will start next to Virgil van Dijk at Anfield next week, and will probably be rewarded with a new five-year contract worth £300,000 a week.

While criticism for Konate is deserved, nobody in Liverpool green showed up. Joe Gomez had a night to forget at right-back, Hugo Ekitike missed a huge chance, Florian Wirtz was quiet, and Milos Kerkez had another difficult evening.

Maybe they struggled so much because of the whistling and daunting Ali Sami Yen Sports Complex RAMS Park atmosphere that Sidwell and Sam Matterface mentioned 427 times.

Going from Matterface to Jon Champion for Newcastle United v Barcelona is quite the upgrade.

At Anfield, you’d back Liverpool to come from behind against anyone. They have been in much stickier situations in Europe, and their home advantage is boosted by the fact Galatasaray will have no away fans in attendance. They are obviously going to come from behind to reach the quarter-finals. But they are not producing Champions League-winning performances.