Liverpool made light work of Bournemouth at Anfield, with Ibrahima Konate and Luis Diaz standing out as two of the Reds’ best early-season performers.
Konate’s talent as a defender has never been in question. What has sometimes been doubted, though, is his availability.
This season he has so far had no worries in that department, which has allowed his abilities to really be showcased across a run of games.
He has started each of Liverpool’s four Premier League matches since being brought on at half time in the season opener against Ipswich, with the Reds conceding just once in those outings.
Against Bournemouth, Fotmob tells us he won all four of his aerial duels, more than anyone else on the pitch, and managed six clearances, plus two blocks.
While Virgil van Dijk has often been deemed the cultured centre-half, with Konate the battler, Liverpool’s Frenchman is now showing he can play as well.
The 25-year-old had a significant effect in possession, taking more touches (125) and making more passes (96) than any other player.
You might expect this from a centre-back playing for the dominant team, but it was what Konate did with those passes that made him stand out.
He played eight passes into the final third, proving he can break lines like we used to see from Joel Matip, and had a great game playing long balls, too.
It was, of course, his long pass in Luis Diaz‘s direction that set the Colombian up for his first, then his pass, also, that put Liverpool on the break for Darwin Nunez‘s strike.
After the match, Arne Slot went out of his way to praise Konate’s decision-making in the build-up to the goals, saying:
“The finishes in both situations were really good, but I think the lead-up to both goals was different and that’s why it was really good.
“In the first goal, Ibou (Konate) recognised really well that they had a high last line and they wanted to press us really high, completely different to Nottingham Forest.
“He recognised the right moment to play the ball in behind.
“In the second one, we needed to play Mo (Salah) and Trent (Alexander-Arnold) reacted fantastically by coming underneath, bounced pass [to] Mo and he just went all the way with the ball all over the pitch and assisted to Lucho (Diaz).”
Luis Diaz works both ways
Speaking of Diaz, he scored twice and paid back Slot’s faith in picking him over Cody Gakpo, who played excellently against AC Milan on Tuesday.
Aside from his two goals, his other two shots were both on target and he completed 30 of his attempted 32 passes. He also played his full 72 minutes without ever being dispossessed.
To play for Liverpool, though, you can’t just have flare going forward; you must also work very hard defensively and Diaz’s stats tell us he did exactly that against Bournemouth.
The Reds’ No. 7 made four recoveries and managed to win four of his seven duels, as well as making a head clearance.
This all resulted in him being rated the best on the pitch by Fotmob, with a score of 9.2 out of 10.
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