Slot slams Liverpool star ‘of no use’ for costing Reds as teammate ‘didn’t know what he was doing’
Liverpool boss Arne Slot hit out at one of his players for costing his side against Crystal Palace, while another player “didn’t know what he was doing”.
The Reds suffered their first defeat of the 2025/26 campaign on Saturday afternoon, losing 2-1 at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace. This opens the door for Arsenal to close the gap on the Premier League leaders on Sunday.
This was a much-deserved victory for Palace, who could have easily been two or three goals ahead by the break.
Liverpool improved after the interval and looked to have stolen a point through Federico Chiesa’s equaliser to cancel out Ismaila Sarr’s opener, though Eddie Nketiah netted a last-minute winner for the hosts.
Liverpool’s defence was all over the place against Palace and Michael Owen has claimed that Ibrahima Konate “didn’t know what he was doing”.
“I don’t know whether it was tiredness, but they rested a fair few players in midweek in the Carabao Cup. They weren’t their usual selves. We are early in the season, I’d be hesitant to blame it on that [tiredness],” Owen said.
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“I mean, Konate in the first half didn’t know what he was doing. I can’t say that it was because of rustiness or tiredness.
“We’ve seen one or two performances like that from him this season that have been quite similar.
“I wouldn’t use that excuse, I would give praise to Crystal Palace, they’re a proper team. They’ve beaten Liverpool in the Community Shield, it wasn’t a fluke. I’d be more inclined to say Palace played very well.”
Slot, meanwhile, singled out one Liverpool star for criticism after the game, with his comments likely directed at summer signing Jeremie Frimpong, who stepped away from match-winner Eddie Nketiah for his goal.
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Slot said: “We can only blame ourselves for defending the way we did.
“One of our players ran out because he wanted to play a counter-attack, which was of no use because time was up, so it was only about defending.
“One player was too offensively minded in that moment, which led to them scoring the winner and us losing the game.”
He added: “It was a disappointing first half and disappointing end to game. Credit to Palace – with the Community Shield it’s not the first time we’ve lost to them. They deserved to be two or three up in the first half.
“The second half was much better from us, we created chances that not many teams do here. It took us a while to score a goal – and when we did, to concede another set-piece goal is just as disappointing as the first half. If one team deserved to win today it was Palace.”
