Gary Neville was left searching for answers after a \u201cstrange\u201d moment during the six-goal clash between Leeds United and Liverpool.<\/p>\n
Mohamed Salah started on the bench for a third straight match under Arne Slot, but Hugo Ekitike stepped up, scoring twice to give Liverpool a 2\u20130 lead at Elland Road on Saturday, 6 December. The French forward punished a disastrous error from Joe Rodon and struck again soon after. Leeds, however, fought back through Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Anton Stach, even without Lukas Nmecha available.<\/p>\n
Leeds had impressed against Chelsea using a new tactical setup, and despite Dominik Szoboszlai briefly quieting the home crowd with his goal, Ao Tanaka pulled the hosts level again.<\/p>\n
Konate\u2019s penalty incident raises eyebrows<\/p>\n
Leeds were handed a lifeline when Ibrahima Konate brought down Willy Gnonto in the box\u2014a moment Neville found baffling because of how the defender moved.<\/p>\n
Replays showed Konate sliding with his arms folded into his chest. The challenge was judged \u201ccareless,\u201d but Neville was puzzled by the defender\u2019s body position.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Sky Sports (6 December, 7:02pm), Neville said: \u201cAnthony Taylor has described that decision better than I can. It\u2019s a careless challenge.\u201d As the referee announced the explanation to the stadium, Neville added, \u201cHe\u2019s got his arm across his chest. Why is his hand there? Is it to avoid handball? It\u2019s just odd.\u201d<\/p>\n
Konate\u2019s future under even more scrutiny<\/p>\n
Konate\u2019s contract expires in 2026, and speculation around his future is growing. Football Insider reports that Liverpool are willing to sell him in January if a replacement becomes available.<\/p>\n
The 26-year-old has endured a dreadful season, contributing heavily to Liverpool\u2019s recent struggles and slide down the Premier League table. While he couldn\u2019t do much about Tanaka\u2019s late equaliser, his overall mentality has worsened Liverpool\u2019s defensive issues\u2014and his performance at Elland Road only added to the concerns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gary Neville was left searching for answers after a \u201cstrange\u201d moment during the six-goal clash between Leeds United and Liverpool. Mohamed Salah started on the bench for a third straight match under Arne Slot, but Hugo Ekitike stepped up, scoring twice to give Liverpool a 2\u20130 lead at Elland Road on Saturday, 6 December. The …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":56334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Gary-Neville-Ibrahima-Konate-750x422-1.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56335,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56333\/revisions\/56335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}