James Pearce echoed the views of many Liverpool supporters in stating that one Reds player was ‘impressive and infuriating’ in the 2-1 win over Wolves on Saturday.
Ibrahima Konate opened the scoring just before half-time and produced a vital block to thwart Carlos Forbs in the final 20 minutes, but he was also culpable of hesitation for Rayan Ait-Nouri’s equaliser and booked for a rash foul on Matheus Cunha.
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In reviewing the match for The Athletic, the journalist wrote: “Since Konate replaced [Jarell] Quansah at half-time against Ipswich Town on the opening weekend of the season, he’s been almost ever-present in the Premier League but this contest showed his impressive and infuriating sides.”
Pearce added that the France defender had ‘a day to remember, and forget’, neatly summing up the Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of the 25-year-old’s performance.
Aside from the aforementioned goal and block, there was plenty to like about Konate’s display against Wolves. As per Sofascore, he won five duels (joint-most of any Liverpool player), completed 59 of his 67 passes (88%) and made two interceptions.
However, as Arne Slot referenced live on Sky Sports after the match, the Frenchman had a nightmare for Ait-Nouri’s goal and seemed rattled for a few minutes after that unenviable moment, while none of his four attempted long balls picked out a teammate (Sofascore).
It was an eventful outing to the Black Country for the 25-year-old, to say the least, but he’s been largely very impressive since displacing Quansah at half-time in the win over Ipswich six weeks ago.
As per WhoScored, Konate has had the second best passing accuracy of anyone to have started a Premier League match for Liverpool this term (90.7%), won the joint-most duels (22) and made the second-most clearances (21).
If the Reds’ number 5 can retain his core defensive qualities while learning from lapses such as the one for the Wolves goal yesterday, he’ll no doubt become an integral part of any success that the team might hopefully go on to achieve this season.
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