Ibrahima Konate showing he is one of the best defenders in the Premier League

By Sam McGuire

Football

Thu November 14, 2024 · 9 min ago

The 2024/25 campaign was always going to be a make-or-break one for Ibrahima Konate.

Heading into the season, the 25-year-old was seemingly behind Jarell Quansah in the pecking order to be Virgil van Dijk’s centre-back partner at Liverpool. Konate was coming off the back of a disappointing summer, having seen Arsenal defender William Saliba get the nod ahead of him for France at Euro 2024.

He recently opened up about this in an interview with Canal, saying: "I know the ins and outs of why I wasn't a starter. I hadn’t played in the last few months, I lacked rhythm, and it showed in training. The coach [Didier Deschamps] told me that today, there are better players than me in this position. It was a big lesson for me."

The former RB Leipzig defender had lost his place for club and country during a pivotal period of his career. With his current deal up in 2026, there were doubts about his future with the club.

A lot has changed in just a few short months.

Konate is now among three candidates to captain France over the international break with Kylian Mbappe not part of the squad. The 6ft4 colossus wore the armband for Les Bleus during the October internationals.

He is also one of the first names on Arne Slot’s teamsheet this season. Konate is the undisputed first-choice partner for Van Dijk. He replaced Quansah at half-time during the season opener against Ipswich Town and hasn’t looked back. The 19-cap international has started every game since in the Premier League and is currently on the best run of his career with the Reds, both in terms of availability and performance.

Since the switch to the Premier League from the Bundesliga in 2021, Konate has only managed a season-high 17 starts, something he’s done on two occasions. Yet with just 11 games on the board, he’s already into double digits for starts and he’s racked up 56% of his minutes haul from last term already.

Slot appears to have fixed the injury issues with the Frenchman and Liverpool are reaping the rewards.

On a personal level, Konate has two goals and an assist this season already. It is his most productive campaign to date. He’s also the most dominant duelist in the league having won 73% of his duels. This is the best success rate of any player to contest 50 or more in the Premier League this term. He’s also winning 82% of his aerial duels, the highest success rate since his RB Leipzig days.

He isn’t just supplementing Van Dijk, he’s rivalling him for his crown of the best centre-back in the Premier League.

For a while now, people have claimed William Saliba is the heir-in-waiting to Van Dijk.

The Arsenal centre-back oozes class in possession but lacks physicality, winning just half of his aerial duels. He’ll never be the complete package if he’s easily bullied in these duels. Meanwhile, Konate can do it all and then some.

Gabriel Martinelli gave up attacking the Frenchman during Liverpool’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal at the Emirates. On a few occasions, the winger had Konate isolated in a wide area but he just didn’t back himself to get the better of the Liverpool No5.

The same thing happened in the 4-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen. Victor Boniface has bullied a lot of defenders during his time in the Bundesliga. There was a moment at Anfield when he had space to knock the ball into when fronted up by Konate. While he did kick the ball into space, he didn’t bother attempting to get around the Liverpool centre-back.

He knew it was a lost cause.

Few players can get the better of Konate in a test of strength and even fewer can beat him in a foot race. He can single-handedly lock down the right side of the Liverpool defence. He has had to on a few occasions with Trent Alexander-Arnold caught up field.

Against Aston Villa last time out, the 25-year-old won all five of his duels – a 100% record matched by only one player and made the second-most clearances (5) as the Reds kept their sixth clean sheet of the season.

He’s played his part in turning this Liverpool defensive unit into the most robust in the Premier League.

Slot’s side lead the way for clean sheets (six), they have conceded the fewest number of goals (six) and they have the lowest Expected Goals Conceded total (9.5). In fact, they are the only team in the English top flight to still be in single digits for the latter metric.

Konate has always had the potential to be the best. It was evident from a young age.

Former Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick said the Frenchman was “one of the best signings” he has ever made.

Konate joined RB Leipzig from Sochaux back in 2017 and Ragnick, speaking to the player recently in an interview with Canal+, said: “I remember very well the day our scouting department in Leipzig showed clips from your Sochaux days. I instantly fell in love with your game.

“I saw straight away you were an amazing person and player with a top-class upbringing. All of the latter proved true. You are without doubt the best signing, or one of the best signings, we did at Leipzig in the last 12 years.”

After three years of finding his feet at Liverpool, Konate is finally delivering on a consistent basis. He’s finally delivering on his promise. He’s finally showing he can be the player to succeed Van Dijk at Liverpool as the defender to be in the Premier League.

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