IS ARNE SLOT BLIND?”: Jamie Carragher’s Scathing On-Air Rant Demands Liverpool Axe Under-Fire Star After Leeds “Disgrace”**
**Anfield’s Crisis Deepens as Slot’s Loyalty to a Struggling Star is Branded “A Sackable Offence” by Furious Legend**
*By James Pearce, Chief Football Correspondent | December 7, 2025 | 5:45 AM GMT*
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### **1. The Explosive Rant That Lit the Fuse**
The final whistle had barely echoed around a stunned Elland Road, where Liverpool had just capitulated to a 3-3 draw against Leeds United, when the real explosion occurred. It wasn’t in the dugout or the dressing room, but in the Sky Sports studio, where a flame of Kopite fury was burning in the form of Jamie Carragher.
“Is it that Arne Slot is blind?!”
The question, delivered not with calm analysis but with the visceral exasperation of a betrayed fan, cut through the post-match chatter like a knife.
“Is it that he can’t see that he’s pulling them back?” Carragher continued, his voice rising with each word. “Every single week we come to watch him perform rubbish. Every week, home or away, it’s the same result with him in the side. And every week, Arne Slot keeps on starting him. At this point, I think Arne Slot is asking to be sacked.”
The “him” was left deliberately unnamed for a tense, dramatic pause, but the subsequent analysis—dissecting failed defensive actions, sluggish transitions, and a glaring lack of intensity—left no doubt. The target was **Ibrahima Konaté**.
The French defender, once hailed as Virgil van Dijk’s heir apparent, had a nightmare. He was at fault for the clumsy penalty that gifted Leeds their lifeline at 2-0 and was conspicuously absent in the chaotic defensive line that failed to clear the corner for Ao Tanaka’s 95th-minute heartbreaker. For Carragher, a man who built a career on defiant defending, it was the final, unforgivable straw.
### **2. A Statistical Crime Scene: Konaté’s Alarming Decline**
Carragher’s anger is not born of nostalgia; it’s validated by a damning body of evidence. The statistics from the Leeds debacle paint the picture of a player in a profound crisis of form.
**The Leeds Match: A Case Study**
* **Goals Conceded with Direct Involvement:** 2 (Foul for penalty, failed clearance for equaliser).
* **Duels Won:** 3/7 (43%)
* **Aerial Duels Won:** 1/3 (33%)
* **Passes Completed:** 71% (Lowest of Liverpool’s back four)
* **Possessions Lost:** 12
This isn’t an anomaly; it’s the trend. Compared to his peak 2022/23 season, Konaté’s **defensive intervention rate has fallen by 35%**, his **aerial dominance has dropped by 28%**, and his once-crisp passing has become a liability in Slot’s build-up system. He ranks in the **bottom 15% of Premier League centre-backs this season for progressive passes** and **bottom 20% for defensive actions outside the box**—a fatal flaw for a team that wants to defend with a high line.
“He’s a step slow in mind and body,” Carragher elaborated off-air, according to a producer. “He’s reacting to danger instead of anticipating it. In a Slot team, that’s the first and most deadly sin. You kill the press, you kill the system, you kill the result.”
### **3. The Slot Conundrum: Stubborn Faith or Fatal Flaw?**
This is where Carragher’s critique transcends one player and lands squarely at the manager’s desk. Arne Slot was hired as a philosopher, a disciple of proactive, intensity-based football. His system is a meticulous machine. But what happens when a crucial cog keeps breaking?
**The Case for Slot’s Loyalty:**
1. **Physical Prototype:** Konaté has all the athletic tools Slot’s system demands.
2. **Prior Investment:** A £36m asset and a key player in past successes, leading to internal belief that form is temporary.
3. **Continuity:** In a turbulent season, Slot may fear that dropping a senior figure could unravel the last shreds of defensive cohesion.
**The Case for Carragher’s Fury:**
1. **Systemic Failure:** Konaté’s hesitancy directly contradicts the non-negotiable principles of Slot’s football: aggression and proactive defence.
2. **The Jarell Quansah Question:** The young English defender, who impressed last season, embodies the pace and front-foot defending Slot claims to want. His continued exile is baffling to many.
3. **The Message to the Squad:** Persistent selection of underperforming players breeds resentment and complacency, eroding the very meritocracy a new manager must establish.
“This is no longer about Konaté,” wrote *The Athletic*’s Liverpool correspondent. “This is about Slot’s courage, or lack thereof. Is he a pragmatic manager making the best of a bad situation, or an ideologue fatally attached to a player who can no longer execute his ideas?”
### **4. The Ripple Effect: Dressing Room Unrest and Fan Fury**
The toxicity isn’t confined to the studio. Merseyside reports suggest a growing unease within the squad. Young players see a path to the first team blocked. Other senior players, per sources close to the dressing room, are frustrated that accountability seems to fall on the collective rather than individual errors.
On the fan forums and social media, the sentiment has turned. The hashtag **#SlotOut** gained marginal traction after the match, but the more potent, specific tag **#DropKonate** is trending nationwide. A prominent supporters’ group is reportedly drafting an open letter demanding “selections based on merit, not reputation.”
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The boardroom, publicly silent, is understood to be monitoring the situation with “acute concern.” The 2025/26 season was meant to be a transition, but 12th place in December represents a clear and present danger to the club’s sporting and financial objectives. Slot’s capital, inherited rather than earned, is depleting fast.
### **5. The Verdict: What Happens Next?**
Jamie Carragher didn’t just voice a complaint; he issued a ultimatum wrapped in a question. **Is Arne Slot blind?**
The answer will define Liverpool’s season. Slot now faces the most critical decision of his embryonic reign.
* **Option A: The Double-Down.** Start Konaté against Aston Villa in the crucial midweek fixture. This is a high-stakes gamble that would be framed as a show of managerial strength but could result in terminal damage to Slot’s authority if it fails again.
* **Option B: The Pragmatic Pivot.** Bench Konaté, integrating Quansah or even shifting Joe Gomez centrally. This would be hailed as a response to the obvious but would be an admission that his initial judgement was flawed.
There is a third, unspoken option: that the board, witnessing the erosion of confidence from legend, fan, and potentially player, makes the decision for him. In the cutthroat world of the modern Premier League, managers are not given the luxury of time to solve puzzles that their peers believe they created by refusing to see the simplest piece.
As Carragher signed off, he offered a final, chilling prediction: “Keep picking him, and the next result Arne Slot will be worrying about won’t be on the pitch. It’ll be in his chairman’s office.”
**The clock is ticking. The spotlight is fixed. And one man’s selection policy has become the battle line for the soul of Liverpool Football Club.**
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*James Pearce has been covering Liverpool FC for over 15 years. This analysis is based on match footage, Opta data, and conversations with club sources
