Dissecting Ibrahima Konaté’s Incredible Season for the Reds

Written on 06/03/2024

While we see Virgil van Dijk take most of the plaudits away when it comes to the Liverpool defence having an excellent season, Ibrahima Konaté’s performances go slightly under the radar. The Frenchman has been in immense form for the Reds, especially after the long-term injury to Joël Matip, which he suffered in early December (03/12/2023 to be exact). 

With injuries in the fullback positions, Joe Gomez has had to fill there and most recently play as a defensive midfielder instead of being another centre-back option for the manager. Out of the 37 appearances in all competitions this season, the Englishman has only played four at centre-back. The emergence of Jarell Quansah has meant that Jürgen Klopp has an option to rotate Konaté with. 

Despite bearing all that in mind, the Frenchman's improvement along with consistency in performances alongside van Dijk is something to behold. 

Having missed 15 games for club and country last season and four early this season due to muscle and knee injuries, there was a note of caution that his minutes have to be carefully managed even though Matip isn’t available till next season (provided he stays) and Gomez has had to operate in multiple other positions.

The 24-year-old has played back-to-back 90s (or close to it) only twice this season (back-to-back means when there is only a 3 or 4-day gap between games). Both of which came after Matip’s injury. It is excellent management despite knowing how gruelling this period has been from December till the coming international break. 

Let’s analyse Konaté’s performance with the help of numbers and try to add contexts behind them to understand his importance to the team.

Ibrahima Konaté - 23/24 Season Numbers in PL

This section has a couple of dashboards looking at Premier League defenders from the current season covering metrics on and off the ball. We look at where Konaté is in these metrics among players similar in position (at least on paper).

Considering that in the FBRef database, fullbacks are also included in the defenders' section, Konaté’s passing numbers in relative terms are in great order. Over 85% accuracy while attempting close to 80 passes per 90 is phenomenal. He is also not shy of breaking the lines and playing those final third passes. Ball-carrying is something he has improved on this season. Having the latter in his locker has elevated his possession game to a new level in the past 6-8 months.

Since there are no possession-adjusted defensive numbers available to me (which gives more context to metrics like tackle and interception), you can look at the ball recovery and interception plot with a bit of a pinch of salt. Konaté isn’t doing too bad in them regardless.