ANFIELD, LIVERPOOL — Ibrahima Konate was the second Liverpool player out of the tunnel for kickoff behind Virgil van Dijk. He's often in the captain's shadow here, as most centre-backs of the modern era would be. But Konate has also had to play alongside a hero week after week, while being a poster boy for a collapsed title defence.
It's a tough gig. It never looked tougher than when, with Liverpool 2-0 to the good and cruising at Elland Road last month, Konate needlessly lunged in on Wilfried Gnonto to give away a penalty, setting in motion the chain of events that led to a chaotic 3-3 draw.
A few hours before the sleepy, goalless return encounter at Anfield on New Year's Day, reports emerged from South America that Liverpool were closing in on a deal for Club Brugge's Ecuadorian centre-back Joel Ordonez. Finally, after the deadline day collapse of Marc Guehi's proposed switch to Merseyside from Crystal Palace, someone new to partner Big Virg. Never mind that Konate was essential to last season's title triumph and has generally been key to a physically diminished Van Dijk recovering to prominence after his 2020 ACL injury. Guehi might be on the market again too.
Jamie Carragher has loudly called out Konate's shortcomings this season and, following the Elland Road collapse, Arne Slot said the France international had been "too much on the crime scene". The post-match talk might have been of Slot publicly admonishing Konate. Throwing him under the bus, if you will. As it turned out, Mohamed Salah had far more venomous use for that particular metaphor.
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That evening in West Yorkshire highlighted how when one thing goes wrong with this Liverpool season, it tends to set off a chain reaction. There was nothing as volatile during a January 1 clash that, at times, felt like it was playing through the fog of a collective hangover. But as things wobbled all around Konate, it was hard not to sympathise with how much the finger of blame has been prodded in his direction.
As Leeds made an enterprising start, Liverpool were pressed into a succession of poorly chosen and executed passes along the backline. Title-winning stalwarts Andy Robertson and Van Dijk were each rushed into errors that Brenden Aaronson briefly threatened to capitalise on. On the other side of Konate was Conor Bradley, only playing at right-back because the right-back signed at great expense to play outside the Frenchman, Jeremie Frimpong, was only trusted to play on the right wing. When Frimpong was switched to the right-hand side of defence for five minutes before being substituted, you could see why.
Dominik Szobozlai has generally risen above the morass this season, but was as stodgy as everyone else, coughing up possession to leave Leeds with a 2 vs. 2 chance to break. When the eventual cross came in, Konate was there to boot behind. From Leeds' next corner, he unfussily ushered Lukas Nmecha away from any chance of converting Jaka Bijol's header down.
Hugo Ekitike, who has the distinction of being the lone Liverpool summer signing to have worked in their faded title afterglow, is one of those footballers who has "lovely feet". It trips off the tongue every time you see him do something nice. He has the classical centre-forward heft to make him an enviably complete penalty box presence. Most of Liverpool's best moments came with the former Eintracht Frankfurt forward involved. However, he did manage to throw in a bizarre headed miss, clanging an effort against Lucas Perri when the Leeds goalkeeper had ventured into no-man's land.
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That opportunity came after Konate had marauded into the Leeds half to win second balls and keep Liverpool attacks rumbling twice in quick succession. Unfortunately for Slot, they have neither the cohesion in midfield nor in their press to sustain such moments long enough that you'd expect a team to buckle.
Daniel Farke's Leeds decided to pick their moments, retreating to a mid-block after their early threat. It still took little to make Liverpool look skittish in transition. In the 58th minute, Konate was fleetingly the only defensive player in his own half to marshall Nmecha before the cavalry arrived.
Inside the final 20 minutes, there were a couple of potential crime-scene moments. A misjudged back header that Bradley sliced into touch. Pressure from a Leeds corner followed and Konate punting a clearance straight up about 20 yards from goal was not the neatest method of averting danger. Konate and Van Dijk were arguably navigated a little too easily when former Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin thought he had a narratively delicious winner, only for the offside flag to intervene.
Ordonez or Guehi would probably have shown more poise in those moments when Liverpool stumbled to back-to-back home clean sheets that keep them in the top four. But there's so much more to fix right now in a team of champions that still neither looks nor functions like one.