GRÖDIG, AUSTRIA - Friday, July 23, 2021: Liverpool's Ibrahima Konaté during a pre-season friendly match between Liverpool FC and FSV Mainz 05 at the Greisbergers Betten-Arena. (Pic by Jürgen Faichter/Propaganda)

Liverpool fans savour early “rapid” and “assured” signs from Ibrahima Konate

Friday proved another opportunity to cast an eye over new signing Ibrahima Konate, and the No. 5 duly impressed fans with his pace, power and game intelligence.

The 22-year-old is a front-runner for a place in the starting XI come the opening day at Norwich alongside Joel Matip, with both Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez still working their way back to match fitness.

It presents the position that it will be his place to lose.

Konate has played a total of 75 minutes so far in pre-season, with his 45 minutes against Mainz added to his 30-minute outing against Stuttgart earlier in the week.

His debut was an “unforgettable moment” and he followed it up with an eye-catching display despite keeping it relatively simple, with his recovery runs a particular highlight.

And while it is only pre-season, there was plenty of excitement from fans in the glimpses we’ve seen from our new signing to date:

https://twitter.com/keiserlfc/status/1418614975174635522

https://twitter.com/erhanlfc/status/1418618663800692738


With less than 21 days until Liverpool’s Premier League campaign gets underway, Konate will see his game-time steadily increase and it could be that we saw the back four that will start at Carrow Road on Friday.

It will be interesting to see which side of central defence the Frenchman occupies moving forward, with his position on the left against Mainz in opposition to the right-side he would need to take with Virgil van Dijk on the pitch.

But that the new signing is up and running and showing all the right qualities is a major boost for Klopp and co. ahead of what will be another intense and important season.