1 year ago
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Photo by John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
The young Liverpool center back has proven to be extremely talented and has a bright future ahead of him.
With virtually all of the Liverpool senior team players returned for preseason, the club has moved on to the second phase of their preparations in Germany. The team is looking to wipe away the memories of a disappointing season where many key individuals struggled with injuries and form.
While many players struggled last season, young defender Ibrahima Konaté took a huge step forward. The Frenchman is looking to build on his form as an individual to be a key player for the club, and help the Reds on to trophies yet again.
“I’m very happy to be here and I want to win a lot of trophies with this club because it’s an amazing club with big history. I want to be a big part of this club and win a lot of trophies with this club. I think this season, the third season, I have to level up and show another personality of me on the pitch and in life as well. I have a lot of objectives – a lot of clean sheets, help my team, score some goals and win some trophies.”
Konaté showed impressive strength in 1v1 situations with elite attackers, manhandling players at time as they tried to hold the ball from him. He also showed very good range from the center back role, especially late in the season when the club made a tactical tweak to move Trent Alexander-Arnold inside as a midfielder in possession. That left a big gap on the right side of the pitch that Konaté patrolled to snuff out attacks. When asked if the newer role helped him become a better overall player, Konaté felt having added responsibility helped him grow.
“Yes, maybe it made me a better player because I have to do more, because I have more space to defend. But I have a nice team to help me do this and this season let’s see what will happen.”
Like others have already said this preseason, Konaté is ready to put in the hard work this preseason to make sure the club succeed this coming season. For him, being in the familiar setting of Germany, where he spent four seasons with RB Leipzig, helps focus on the task at hand.
“I’m very happy to be here in Germany. I know this country already and the weather is much better than Liverpool at the moment! The team is happy. I’m very happy to be back after the holiday – it was short but I am very happy to see the players, the staff, everyone from Liverpool. We’re ready to train hard. It’s very intense but we have to do this, we have to do a lot of sacrifice because we have to show a lot of things this season.”
