Ian Doyle with the main talking point from Liverpool’s Premier League clash at Leeds United on Saturday evening
It has been repeated so often by Arne Slot this season it has become almost a mantra from the Liverpool boss. The propensity to concede the first goal has left the Reds chasing the game and unable to impose the control that became their trademark on the way to the championship.
This, then, was the ideal opportunity for Slot’s side to finally demonstrate their composure and quality at a time when the under-pressure Reds boss needed it most.
That they failed miserably not once but twice underlined exactly why they continue to flounder their way through a desperate, tortuous campaign. With one step forward, they almost immediately take one backwards.
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But nothing could legislate for a moment of unnecessary madness from Ibrahima Konate that gifted Leeds United an unlikely and undeserved way back into a game.
With Hugo Ekitike having put Liverpool in control with a quickfire double at the start of the second half, Wilfried Gnonto was one of three players thrown on by the home team in a whiff of desperation.
But within eight minutes the winger had coaxed Konate into a ridiculous sliding challenge that referee Anthony Taylor eventually awarded as a penalty after a pitchside monitor check.
Soft? Yes. Gnonto was taking the ball out of play and Konate – who, maddeningly, had done well up to that point – gifted Dominic Calvert-Lewin a chance to score from the spot and rouse a Leeds crowd that gave the home side the momentum to equalise two minutes later as Anton Stach capitalised on some woefully weak collective defending.
That wasn’t enough for Liverpool, however.
Having, to their credit, rolled their sleeves up again and regained the lead through Dominik Szoboszlai’s well-crafted strike, they pressed the self-destruct button again in the sixth minute of injury time to allow substitute Ao Tanaka to score at the far post from a corner – the 10th time Liverpool had conceded from a set-piece in the Premier League this season. Nobody has leaked more.
It says much that while the Reds have come through a pivotal week in Slot’s tenure unbeaten, this and the midweek draw at home to another promoted side, Sunderland, both felt like defeats.
That losing feeling is proving hard for Liverpool to shake. They continue to find new ways to make life difficult for themselves and their head coach.
