Gary Neville 'annoyed' at Liverpool star as Arne Slot comments after accusation made

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Gary Neville claimed Arne Slot grew 'frustrated' with Ibrahima Konate during Liverpool's crushing 2-1 defeat to Chelsea . The Sky Sports pundit admitted he was annoyed with the defender's lack of urgency, but the Reds boss revealed that was not why he substituted him off.

The Premier League champions were heading for a share of the spolis but succumbed to a devastating 96th-minute strike from Estevao to leave Stamford Bridge empty-handed.

However, Liverpool's troubles began well before Chelsea's dramatic winner. Slot's side fell behind within the opening 14 minutes due to a wondrous strike from Moises Caicedo and rightfully trailed 1-0 at the interval.

The manager made one change at half-time, introducing Florian Wirtz for Conor Bradley , before implementing two additional substitutions just 10 minutes into the second period, reports the Liverpool Echo . One of those switches saw Konate withdrawn for Curtis Jones , forcing Ryan Gravenberch to drop back and operate as an emergency centre-half.

Neville felt Slot was desperate to remedy Liverpool's inability to build play from the back as they pursued a leveller against a confident Chelsea and accused Konate of showing no urgency. The former Manchester United man said on Sky Sports : "If you watch Konate on the ball at the start of the second half, he is just walking with it.

"It's frustrating me and annoying me to be honest with you. It's obviously annoying Slot as well because he has decided he is going to get somebody who is better on the ball at the back.

"That is strange from Konate. No idea what he was trying to do, you could see it coming as well as he stepped in. You thought, 'Where is his option, where is his pass?'"

However, Slot revealed that his reason for withdrawing Konate was actually down to a knock. He explained post-match: "I don't know if it's a big injury, but I do know that he limped.

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"And I asked him, and he said, 'I feel my quad a little bit.' But for me all alarm bells go off because in another sprint then you never know if that is going to go good, so it was already a substitution I had in mind for maybe a little bit later, because the right centre-back has a lot of ball possession, and we all know that Ryan is good in there.

"So it might be okay and he went off early enough, but it was clear that I had to take him off because he was limping."

Slot's tactical switches had an almost instant impact, as Liverpool found their rhythm and gained a foothold in the match. Cody Gakpo levelled the score just seven minutes following the double change, and his strike appeared sufficient to secure a point for the away side, who had squandered a draw at Crystal Palace last weekend.

However, just like at Selhurst Park, Liverpool failed to maintain their position. Slot said: "Last season we lost against Chelsea as well.

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"Stamford Bridge is always difficult. We were very close to a result. Small margins. As I said at Galatasaray, we had a one-v-one then they get a penalty. We concede in extra, extra time against Palace. And then today they score a goal that could go at either end.

"After we scored 1-1 it went our way and I think I was waiting for us to score the second. Decision-making could've been better, last 10-15 minutes was end-to-end.

"We arrived in their 18-yard box with [Andy] Robertson , we couldn't control the ball but again it's fine margins like it's been for as long as I've been here. Last week, same as this week two difficult away games, the fine margins haven't been in our favour."

Liverpool head into the international break sitting second in the table, one point behind Arsenal . Their next match is a home game against Manchester United come Sunday, October 19.

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