It turned out to be another disappointing afternoon for Arne Slot and his Liverpool side, as they suffered a crushing 3-0 defeat at the hands of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in what was the Spaniard’s 1000th match as a manager.
The result marked another low point for Liverpool in what has been an increasingly inconsistent season under their new boss.
The game started brightly but quickly turned against the Reds. Manchester City’s star striker Erling Haaland broke the deadlock in the 29th minute after earlier being denied from the penalty spot by Liverpool’s stand-in goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili.
The Georgian, deputising in goal, had made a crucial save just 16 minutes before Haaland eventually found the net, but his efforts ultimately couldn’t keep Liverpool in the game.
Liverpool thought they had drawn level not long after when captain Virgil van Dijk found the back of the net. However, their celebrations were short-lived as VAR intervened.
Andy Robertson was judged to have been in an offside position during the build-up to the goal, leading to it being disallowed.
The Premier League later released a statement clarifying the decision: “The referee’s call of offside and no goal to Liverpool was checked and confirmed by VAR – with Robertson in an offside position and deemed to be making an obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper.”
The disallowed goal seemed to drain Liverpool’s momentum, and City took full advantage. Before halftime, they doubled their lead through Nico Gonzalez, who finished off a well-worked attacking move to put the hosts firmly in control.
In the second half, Jeremy Doku delivered the final blow with a sensational strike that sealed the three points for City and left Liverpool with plenty of questions to answer.
While Liverpool’s overall performance was well below par, a large portion of the criticism online was directed towards defender Ibrahima Konaté. Fans took to social media to express their frustration with his performance, accusing him of being disinterested and unfocused amid rumours linking him with a potential free transfer to Real Madrid at the end of the season.
One frustrated supporter wrote, “Replace Konaté in January, he seems disinterested and his head is in Madrid.” Another added, “Konaté needs to go in January.
He can’t pass, his decision-making is atrocious, and he’s as strong as a bag of Haribo.” A third fan remarked sarcastically, “Can we raise transport for Konaté to Madrid in January? Gomez can handle the rest of the season.” Others went even further, calling him a “liability” and joking that if Madrid did sign him, “Liverpool would have robbed them.”
Overall, it was a painful day for Liverpool, with a harsh scoreline, a controversial VAR call, and growing discontent among supporters about certain players’ commitment and form.
