It has now been around a day and a half since Ibrahima Konaté decided to jump in on a Leeds United player who was essentially running out of play, turning the match on its head. The decision from the French defender was the latest in a long line of dreadful ones that he’s pulled out during the course of the campaign to date. Prior to that moment, the Reds were in control and had quietened down a boisterous crowd at Elland Road. The game was over. The Leeds players knew it, the Leeds crowd knew it and even Gary Neville on commentary knew it. Liverpool had produced a decent enough display, even if not an exceptional one, to keep the home team at bay. Konaté himself had actually played well, stopping Dominic Calvert-Lewin from even getting a sniff at goal, helping his teammates to deal with second balls and generally looked much more like we should have done against a style of play that we’ve struggled with at times. Why he did what he did remains a mystery.
Konate man… What are you doing.
— Viktor Fagerström (@viktorfagerlfc.bsky.social) 6 December 2025 at 19:00
For whatever reason, the Frenchman decided to throw himself into a tackle that gave away a penalty that saw the game turn entirely on its head. It was horrendous decision-making from him and Liverpool paid the price. The manager might well end up losing his job in the coming weeks, which will be partially down to his own decisions but also largely on the shoulders of the players who have been nowhere near good enough throughout the season. Konaté is unquestionably one of the players that is most deserving of criticism for how he’s played, yet he has been aided and abetted by the fact that there is no viable option to replace him. That, of course, is the responsibility of Richard Hughes and the other members of the backroom team, who decided to spend the summer trying to sign a player who has acted in a manner that can only really be interpreted as homophobic in the past, only to miss out on him anyway. Konaté set the first bomb off, but not the loudest.
Salah’s Selfish Reaction
For reasons known only to himself, Mo Salah decided to speak to the press in the wake of the 3-3 draw with Leeds United and set the place ablaze. In the past, when Jürgen Klopp was still manager, the Egyptian King dropped a grenade when he said, “If I speak, there will be fire.” This time, he eschewed the chance to be equally as vague in what he was thinking, instead pouring petrol all over the place before lighting a match and dropping it. The key line from the interview, in my opinion, was when Salah said, “I have done so much for this club. I don’t have to go every day fighting for my position because I earn it.” That is not the way football works. It is not the way teamwork works. If you’re one of the other players in the squad, how does it feel to read Salah saying that he shouldn’t have to fight for his position? What does that say to the manager, in terms of what sort of a work rate the Egyptian is going to put in moving forward? It is not the right attitude at all.
Salah is a Liverpool legend, we love him but this was wrong. Any honest Red will have supported Slot’s decision to drop Mo. Mo has been out of form & something different was needed to help the team. Nobody was blaming him for this season, it’s just that a change was needed. This is a team game.
#LFC— Rab ☮️🌉🇨🇦 (@rewerbyor.bsky.social) 7 December 2025 at 07:39
Don’t get me wrong, I’m more than aware of the fact that Mohamed Salah is one of the best players ever to wear the shirt. He will, rightly, be remembered as an all-time Liverpool great. Yet he’s also now a 33-year-old, and it would be madness for a manager to build the team around him. He needs to do whatever he can in order to earn his place, not just have it handed to him because of past achievements. The Reds are fighting for their season right now, having to put everything in to try to salvage something from what’s happened up until this point. The Egyptian winger has to be part of that fight, doing what he can when called upon, not assuming that he deserves to start simply by virtue of being who he is. Whether he likes it or not, his form has been poor since the first ball was kicked. His decision-making has been dire, as has the execution of said decisions. We all know a big part of the reason for that, which is that he has been badly hurt by the lack of Diogo Jota, which is why I think the manager is right to take him out of the firing line.
Raging Against the Dying of the Light
Since the moment I read about what Salah had said, the line from the Dylan Thomas poem kept running around my head. This entire thing has felt like a man facing up to his footballing mortality and wanting to fight against that tooth and nail. Although five points from matches against West Ham United, Sunderland and Leeds United is far from good enough for a team like Liverpool, it is better than we’ve seen from the club in recent games and that has come with Salah largely sidelined. He is an intelligent player and he will know that the club’s future is one without him in it. That isn’t an easy thing for him to face up to, nor is the fact that his chance of further silverware with the Reds is unlikely to happen this season. No wonder he’s feeling angry. It isn’t a surprise that he’s chosen to lash out. It is, though, a selfish move that won’t benefit him or his teammates in the short term. He might feel a bit better for saying it, but I’m not sure there’s any other benefit to come.
I thought they made an interesting point on Sunday Supplement on Sky this morning, in that Liverpool have to change from Salah’s Liverpool to Wirtz’s Liverpool. Salah isn’t the future and if you’ve paid £116m for Wirtz you have to build the team around him. AFCON could be that blessing in disguise.
— Kenny Swaby (@kennyswaby.bsky.social) 23 November 2025 at 20:23
It is important to remember that Salah never looks like a better player for having been away at the Africa Cup of Nations, usually struggling to re-find his form when he returns to Merseyside. If he is hoping that his bombshell discussion with the press will cause the manager to turn to him more regularly when he comes back, he’s almost certainly going to be disappointed. The player is stirring down the barrel of a future away from Merseyside and doesn’t like how that looks to him, so of course he’s lashing out. He is also, rightly, aware of the fact that he is far from the only player who has been underperforming. The bad news for Salah is that his position is arguably the only one that is more readily fixed by Arne Slot, whilst we simply don’t have the options in the squad to drop the likes of Konaté or Cody Gakpo. We have all been begging the Dutchman to try something different, it just so happens that what he’s tried sees the Egyptian King out of the picture. That is not a nice future for him to envision.
