"He might come in on the weekend against Chelsea" - Pundit names Liverpool star who might replace 'struggling' Ibrahima Konate in XI against Blues

Pundit Danny Murphy has urged Liverpool manager Arne Slot to bench Ibrahima Konate against Chelsea. He believes that the Frenchman has struggled this season and needs to be replaced by Joe Gomez in the game on Saturday, October 4.

Speaking on talkSPORT, Murphy said that Konate lacks confidence and needs to be benched for a couple of matches. He added that the issue for Slot is that he has no reliable backup after they failed to land Marc Guehi in the summer, and said:

“He’s struggling (Konate). He’s had the odd good game, but he’s struggling. And I don’t know whether that’s a mental thing because of the lack, you know, he’s not signed the deals, a lot of speculation. I don’t know if he’s been tapped up. I don’t know if he’s just lacking confidence. No, he’s struggling. Yeah."

"The fans are on him a little bit, but for a long time, he’s been very good. So everyone can have a bad spell. Let’s just, the problem is without getting Guehi, of course, that they’ve only got Gomez, who can come in, and he’s not quite as physically powerful as Konate. But he might come in on the weekend against Chelsea.”

Liverpool travel to face Chelsea this weekend, aiming to get back to winning ways. They lost to Crystal Palace in the Premier League last weekend and lost to Galatasaray in the UEFA Champions League during the week.

Liverpool manager admits defenders have made mistakes in recent matches

Liverpool manager Arne Slot admitted that his defenders have made mistakes in their recent matches. He added that Konate has been at fault for the two losses and said (via LiverpoolECHO):

"If you lose like we did v Galatasaray and Palace it doesn't help if you lose the ball easily. He has been one of them but not the only one. It happened to him once in both games. If you lose then there's so much focus on that moment and then 90 minutes is very poor - but I don't analyse the game like that. But in the last two games it has been obvious and clear we have made a few errors we are not used to. If you do things people aren't used to and you lose, normally the manager gets criticised."

Liverpool are on top of the Premier League table despite their loss last week, while Chelsea are eighth after six matches.