“Guilty of Gross Errors” – National Media Unimpressed with Liverpool Player’s Performance

France endured a 3-1 defeat to Italy in the Nations League, with Ibrahima Konate in the starting line-up.

Ibrahima Konate faced a challenging evening as France fell to Italy in their Nations League match.

The Liverpool defender returned to the starting eleven for Les Bleus, having missed Euro 2024 entirely. Konate did not feature during France’s run to the semi-finals in Germany earlier this summer.

However, after a stellar start to the 2024-25 Premier League season—where he played a key role in helping Liverpool win their opening three matches without conceding a goal—the 25-year-old was given an opportunity to start in France’s Nations League clash against Italy at the Parc des Princes.

Despite taking an early lead within 60 seconds, courtesy of Bradley Barcola, Didier Deschamps’ side could not hold their advantage.

Italy equalised through Federico Dimarco after 30 minutes, before Davide Frattesi and Giacomo Raspadori scored in the second half to secure Italy’s first win in France in 70 years.

Les Bleus now have to recover quickly as they prepare to face Belgium on Monday. It remains to be seen whether Konate will retain his place in the starting line-up ahead of Bayern Munich’s Dayot Upamecano.

The French media have released their player ratings following the loss to Italy, and like many of his teammates—including fellow centre-back William Saliba—Konate did not fare well.

FootMercato gave the ex-RB Leipzig defender just a 3/10 and commented: “Back as a starter in the French team, Ibrahima Konaté was reassuring in his interventions, but sometimes had trouble with his positioning, alongside Saliba.

“On the equalizing goal, we felt he was having a little trouble marking. Same thing on the second goal conceded, where he was behind Frattesi.”

Le Parisien delivered Konate the same score and and said: “Back as a starter after going through the Euro without playing, the Liverpool defender gave a really insufficient performance. investments.

“He leaves too much time for Tonali to equalize and leaves the field open to Frattesi for the second goal. Overall, he weakened the building through very approximate placements.”

Eurosport France were a little kinder and believed Konate was a 4/10 performer as they gave the reasoning: “We have known him to be much more thorough in his interventions and more concentrated in his investments.

“He leaves too much time for Tonali to equalize and leaves the field open to Frattesi for the second goal. Overall, he weakened the building through very approximate placements.”

Maxifoot handed Konate a 3.5 and commented: “Preferred to Dayot Upamecano for this meeting, the central defender of the France team produced a disappointing performance. Caught on Frattesi’s chance in the first half, the Liverpool player was sometimes late in his area.

“On his rare interventions, he was rather present and was precise in his restarts, despite long balls sometimes returned to the opponent. However, the Tricolore were behind on Frattesi’s goal after the break.”

But Homme du Match were less impressed and dished out only a 3. It said “Failed return to selection for the Liverpool player. He is guilty of gross errors on numerous occasions, particularly on the first two goals.

“He was also unable to communicate with Clauss, which led to Italian domination on this axis of the field.”

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