‘Genuinely…’ – Alan Pardew suggests Liverpool duo may have had a disagreement behind the scenes

Alan Pardew has suggested that two Liverpool teammates ‘look like they have had a row’ with one another.

Aside from a 5-1 drubbing of Eintracht Frankfurt, the past month has been calamitous for the Reds, with four successive Premier League defeats seeing them drop to seventh in the table and have their title credentials written off by many.

An alarming defensive record has dogged Arne Slot’s side this season, with 14 top-flight goals conceded already (nine of those over the last four games), compared to only three for table-topping Arsenal.

Pardew makes worrying Van Dijk and Konate claim

Pardew appeared on talkSPORT on Monday to sift through the wreckage of Liverpool’s latest setback against Brentford at the weekend, and he went as far as to claim that Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk may have had a disagreement behind the scenes.

The former Newcastle manager said: “Konate and Van Dijk genuinely look like they have had a row. I don’t know, maybe he is nicking Van Dijk’s meal at the training ground!

“There seems to be a lack of… the one thing about centre-backs is they look after their full-back and each other. That is the key to a back four. Neither are doing that job, so therefore, that is a massive problem for Liverpool.”

Liverpool don’t need teammates at loggerheads with each other

If there’s one thing the Reds absoluely do not need right now, it’s for teammates to be falling out with each other, especially those who play as partnerships as Van Dijk and Konate do at centre-back.

Micah Richards did suggest that the 34-year-old Dutchman ‘needs help’ from the Frenchman but isn’t getting it, with Alan Shearer bluntly declaring that the duo have been ‘awful’ in recent games.

The defensive pairing were immense last season as Liverpool romped to Premier League glory, but their effectiveness as a partnership has nosedived over the past couple of months.

Part of that might be down to Van Dijk in particular feeling obligated to cover for the frailties shown by the Reds’ full-backs, with a loss of the chemistry that he and Konate had formed with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson either side of them becoming apparent this term.

We’d like to think that Pardew is merely being melodramatic in suggesting that our centre-back duo have been at loggerheads behind the scenes.

Players will exchange harsh words on the training pitch and in matches, which is fine so long as it isn’t allowed to evolve into a deeper falling out between teammates.

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