Ibrahima Konate is having fun with his most persistently robust begin to a season but at Liverpool, with Arne Slot simply as impressed by his work away from the pitch.
Konate has been one among Liverpool’s greatest gamers to date this marketing campaign, and on Saturday evening is ready to increase his private report to 10 consecutive begins within the Premier League.
That the Frenchman has been unable to make greater than 10 begins within the league in his earlier three seasons with the Reds highlights his battle with accidents.
However to date that has not proved an issue below Slot, whose backroom workers had been famend for enhancing and sustaining the health report of gamers at Feyenoord.
Now 25 and a candidate for captaincy with the France nationwide crew, Konate is maturing right into a world-class centre-back, together with his head coach crediting his dedication to enchancment off the pitch.
“I don’t know the way [Konate’s form] was [last season],” he informed the Liverpool Echo‘s Paul Gorst.
“The one factor I do know is that from the second I first began working with Ibou, his first recreation wasn’t the very best in opposition to Manchester United in pre-season on the USA tour.
“However I used to be impressed by how a lot he desires to study.
“So each time we’re on the pitch, or having particular person clips or crew conferences he’s so targeted on making an attempt to grasp what we wish from him.
“All the fellows are fairly constructive in that however, in my view, he stands out in making an attempt to study the issues that we try at hand over to it.
“That is among the explanation why his performances are very steady and the opposite factor is he’s enjoying subsequent to a participant who we might all like to play alongside.
“However for Virgil it’s the identical with Ibou, I feel the 2 of them are complementary. They carry out the very best in one another so that’s the reason why the 2 of them accomplish that effectively.”
Regardless of the tried narrative in north London that Arsenal boast the Premier League‘s greatest centre-back partnership in William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes, there’s a clear front-runner this season in Konate and Virgil van Dijk.
Slot was requested for his view on the talk however distanced himself from any comparability, as a substitute praising the depth of Liverpool’s defensive ranks.
“The perfect partnership within the league proper now? That’s tough to guage as a result of I solely noticed our video games, all of them, and generally I see a number of video games of the opponent if we face them,” he defined.
“I don’t have a look at it in as a lot element as I have a look at our personal defenders.
“The one factor I see we have now at this second is 4 superb centre-backs the place two of them are enjoying many of the video games.
“However the second we want Joe Gomez he has finished excellent and for me Jarell Quansah has been unfortunate in moments however for those who take away these moments he’s doing rather well as effectively.”
