Jamie Carragher slams Liverpool player who has been ‘awful all season’

'He makes a mistake in every match'

In a repeat fixture of the clash that saw Arne Slot's side eliminated last season, Liverpool fell behind 2-0 via goals from Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

The result came after Liverpool manager Slot had experimented with his starting lineup, opting to utilise a back-five for the first time this season.

While CBS Sport pundit Jamie Carragher identified Slot's tactical change as being a "massively wrong" choice, he also focused attention from the result on one of Liverpool's high profile players.

Best UK betting offers right now - 18+, BeGambleAware

Speaking on CBS Sport Golazo, the 2005 Champions League winner identified French centre-back Ibrahima Konate — asked to play in a back three for one of the first times in his career— as a major issue in the team.

Carragher began: "The manager tried something, but he got it massively wrong tactically about how he went about it.

"It's easy for me to say that after the event, that's what we do, we are pundits, we speak after the game.

"He went about it with the back five all wrong, they were actually more open with a back five than with a back four, because they went man-to-man all over the pitch, and the three centre-backs had to cover the entire width of the pitch.

"Watching Virgil van Dijk tonight in the middle of a back three, normally, at a certain age, you think: 'Middle of a back three is perfect for me, everyone is in position, you are getting protection from the back five.'

"This was different. Defenders were jumping into midfield with no one to mark and Van Dijk, at 34, had to keep running across and he couldn't do it. 

"People have criticised Van Dijk this season for his performances, and I think that's harsh. 

"He plays every game, Konate next to him has been awful all season and was poor again tonight. He makes a mistake in every game, that's not easy to play with that. 

"I think Van Dijk has been one of Liverpool's best players, but tonight in this back three, I've never seen him so uncomfortable in a Liverpool shirt.

"I think he'll be pleading with Arne Slot to never play that system again, he found it so tough. 

"But it is not just Liverpool getting it wrong tactically. PSG were absolutely out of this world. It was like watching Pep Guardiola's Barcelona."

Despite the disappointing defeat, a result which Carragher also claimed "should've been 5 or 6 [to PSG]," Liverpool still have a chance to turn things around in a second leg at Anfield next week.

Reds' fans will only have to look back to May 2019 for inspiration when it comes to great European fightbacks.

Following a 3-0 defeat to Lionel Messi's Barcelona, Liverpool incredibly came back to win 4-0 in another Anfield return leg — before going on to win the tournament.