I know why they're doing it but I do find it strange that a lot of pundits are focusing on Wirtz with Liverpool's form. He clearly hasn't hit the ground running and with that price tag, there's a ton of expectation and pressure to perform. But every match that I have watched Liverpool play this year has featured Konate looking, at the best, bang average. Most of the time, he's looked awful - constantly giving the ball away, missing tackles and allowing teams to break right through him. The fullbacks deserve blame too of course since they don't do anything to cover him unless Slot plays Szoboszlai out of position at fullback, taking away their most physical central midfielder. Personally, I've never thought Konate was as good as he was made out to be - he's a solid CB but not one who should be talked about in the same sentence as any of our CB's IMO. Add that to the often ignored absence of Alexander-Arnold and I think that's the largest reason why Liverpool looks off. TAA covered so many of their buildup issues in the midfield with his ability to instantly skip lines and launch devastating breaks on his own with his passing. They don't have that now and it doesn't help that Wirtz hasn't hit the ground running and MacAllister looks awful.
I do expect Wirtz to start impacting games more but I don't think Konate's form is going to improve much and those fullbacks are still a big problem when defending. I think we have a great opportunity to open up a gap by the January window and it's one we need to take.
