Ibrahima Konate jokingly hit out at Gary Neville’s decision after he missed out on the player of the match award in Liverpool’s win over Wolves.
The Frenchman opened the scoring before half-time, thundering a header beyond Sam Johnstone to give the Reds the lead despite a fairly sluggish performance.
Konate did also have a hand to play in Wolves’ equaliser, failing to clear the ball in his own box before Rayan Ait-Nouri levelled the match up, but the centre-back later produced a crucial challenge to deflect Carlos Forbs’s effort away from danger.
It was a successful evening at Molineux for Liverpool, with Mohamed Salah’s penalty securing a victory to send them to the top of the table.
However, Konate’s thoughts were on the player of the match award, which he was forced to begrudgingly hand over to team-mate Ryan Gravenberch after Neville chose the Dutchman.
"Sky Sports, who decides who POTM is?" 😅
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 28, 2024
Ibrahima Konate was less than impressed at having to hand over the Player of the Match award to Liverpool teammate Ryan Gravenberch 🏆 pic.twitter.com/NkPwBs93rh
“Sky Sports, who decides who is man of the match?” Konate asked in his post-match interview alongside Gravenberch.
“How is this possible? OK, it’s my brother, I have to give it to him. Milan I score, today I score... I didn’t deserve it?
“No, no, no, what happened? You have to talk to them, I don’t know who decides.”
Konate shook his head as he was then told it was Neville who made the decision, as Gravenberch sheepishly added: “Thank you Gary.”
Arne Slot was asked for his opinion on who deserved the award, and offered little in the way of support for Konate.
“Konate? Maybe he forgot that moment that we conceded a goal a bit like he was not there,” Slot said.
“Maybe that was the reason we conceded, that he wasn’t there at that moment. Because to say the least it was avoidable, let’s say it likes this.”
