Arne Slot lays down challenges to two of his Liverpool team ahead of Saturday's Premier League trip to Tottenham Hotspur
Arne Slot has challenged Ibrahima Konate to keep up the form that has helped Liverpool keep back-to-back clean sheets ahead of Saturday's visit to Tottenham Hotspur. Konate has started every Premier League game this term alongside captain Virgil van Dijk and has seen his displays come under fire during a difficult run that saw the champions lose six times between late September and November.
However, Liverpool are unbeaten in five across all competitions and have secured three clean sheets during that time, in victories over West Ham United, Inter in the Champions League, and last week's 2-0 triumph at home to Brighton & Hove Albion.
Slot said after the 3-3 draw with Leeds United that France international Konate is "too often at the crime scene" when it came to conceding goals but the Reds boss has been pleased with the response from the former RB Leipzig defender, who is expected to start at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday evening.
"For centre-backs that is not an uncommon thing to be on the crime scene if you concede goals but he has been unlucky a few times, where he played a good game in my opinion but a moment decides the game," Slot said.
"We play a low scoring game, football, that is the nice thing about football and why teams who are not as good can also win the game, and then when you are involved in a moment like Ibou it has an immediate impact on the result. And then maybe people are not as positive about that as they should be if you look at his performances.
"But recently he has not been on the crime scene and that is the way we prefer to see him. We prefer to see all of our players [away from the crime scene], but that is not only about him.
"He has helped out recently than before, we are less vulnerable in situations than we were earlier in the season. And that has had an immediate impact on centre-backs and Ibou is a centre-back. So let's keep it like this."
Slot also asked Curtis Jones to maintain his current level after turning in eye-catching performances from the start in his last three games, the most recent of which was his 200 appearance for the Reds.
Slot added: "He has done really good in the last three games and I think that is not the first time, but maybe since I am here it is the first time that three times in a row he brings in very very good performances.
"He's had good performances in the past and then maybe the game later I didn't like the performance as much recently in his last three. It is again the challenge to go to the fourth, the fifth, the sixth game. "But I think I am not the only one who liked the way he played with so much confidence, with so much work rate, giving it all in every single moment for the team and really comfortable on the ball as well. "So his last three performances are the base for where we expect him to go on but that starts tomorrow against a difficult opponent in Spurs."