James Pearce has revealed that Ibrahima Konate recently set himself a personal target, one that the Liverpool defender is already nicely on track to accomplish.
In an article for The Athletic detailing how the 25-year-old ‘has his mojo back’ at Anfield, the journalist highlighted that, after scoring against AC Milan in the Champions League last month, the France international has imposed the objective to score four goals this season.
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He’s already halfway towards achieving that target after he netted in the 2-1 win away to Wolves last weekend, and having won back his place in the starting XI under Arne Slot, he has ample scope to complete that personal mission.
Pearce drew attention to how Aaron Briggs – who came on board at Liverpool over the summer in the capacity of first team individual development coach, has worked closely with analysts in an attempt to maximise the aerial threat posed by the Reds’ centre-backs, with those efforts evidently ‘paying off’.
Konate’s goal at the San Siro a fortnight ago was his first for LFC since the 2022 FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City, which bookended a remarkable flurry of three in four games in April of that month.
Until the recent trip to Milan, that quickfire treble had comprised the Frenchman’s entire scoring tally at Liverpool, with the 25-year-old again displaying a ‘London bus’ tendency when it comes to condensing his goals in a red shirt into brief prolific periods.
With seven months of the season still to go and our number 5 a regular starter under Slot, he seems well capable of adding the two goals that he still needs in order to satisfy his self-imposed target.
Recent games have shown just how much of an aerial threat Konate can offer in both penalty boxes, and having seen centre-back peer Gabriel Magalhaes use his head to score six league goals for Arsenal since their visit to Anfield last Christmas, he’s clearly determined to be just as effective a weapon for the Reds.
The Frenchman’s bread-and-butter is still to stop the opposition from scoring rather than getting in on the act himself, with the Liverpool boss admonishing the 25-year-old for his lapse in Wolves’ equaliser on Saturday, but aside from that aberration he’s been superb at both ends of the pitch for us at the start of the campaign.
Ibou scored in consecutive Champions League games two-and-a-half years ago…what chance a repeat of that feat with a goal against Bologna tonight?
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