Arne Slot reveals why he subbed off Ibrahima Konate in 2-1 loss against Chelsea in Premier League

The Reds have now lost three games in a row.

Ibrahima Konaté was substituted early in the second half of Saturday’s loss to Chelsea after “alarm bells” went off for Arne Slot. Liverpool are awaiting a more thorough evaluation of his fitness.

Konaté has started all nine of Liverpool’s Premier League and Champions League games thus far, despite his performance being wildly inconsistent this season. Since the beginning of 2025–2026 Virgil van Dijk has been paired with the Frenchman as his partner.

When Konaté hobbled off 56 minutes in, the Reds were down and in need of a goal. Instead of making a like-for-like substitution, Arne Slot decided to make a tactical change, substituting midfielder Curtis Jones. Ryan Gravenberch, a deep-lying playmaker, finished the game at the back.

However, Joe Gomez is currently the only recognised centre back available to accompany Van Dijk after the summer sale of Jarell Quansah and the long-term injury suffered by summer acquisition Giovanni Leoni last month.

Liverpool have gained some time to regroup thanks to the October international break, but if Konaté is off for more than ten days, there won’t be any senior defensive backup.

Perhaps the depth issue played a role in Slot’s suggestion during the Chelsea match that Konaté was pulled right away at the first hint of a possible issue to prevent it from becoming a more serious injury.

Arne Slot reveals reason behind Ibrahima Konate’s substitution

Given that Konaté was having trouble on the ball, he was already considering hooking the 26-year-old for tactical reasons. But the real reason was due to an injury.

“I don’t know if it is a big injury, but what I do know is he limped a little bit and when I asked him he said he felt his quad a little bit. Then, for me, all alarm bells go off because in another sprint you never know if that is going to go good,”

“It was also already a substitution I had in mind, maybe for a few minutes or a little bit later, because the right centre back had a lot of ball possession and we needed to create from that position. We all know Ryan is quite good in that. It might be okay that he went off early enough but it was clear I had to take him off because he was limping.” the Liverpool boss explained.

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Telegram.