Liverpool made mild work of Bournemouth at Anfield, with Ibrahima Konate and Luis Diaz standing out from the group as two of the Reds’ finest early-season performers.
Konate’s expertise as a defender has by no means been in query. What has generally been doubted, although, is his availability.
This season, he has up to now had no worries in that division, which has allowed his talents to essentially be showcased throughout a run of video games.
He has began every of Liverpool’s 4 Premier League matches since being introduced on at half time within the season opener in opposition to Ipswich, with the Reds conceding simply as soon as in these outings.
In opposition to Bournemouth, Fotmob tells us he gained all 4 of his aerial duels, greater than anybody else on the pitch, and managed six clearances to go together with two blocks.
Whereas Virgil van Dijk has typically been deemed the classy centre-half, with Konate the battler, Liverpool’s Frenchman is now exhibiting he can play as nicely.
The 25-year-old had a big impact in possession, taking extra touches (125) and making extra passes (96) than another participant.
You would possibly anticipate this from a centre-back taking part in for the dominant crew, nevertheless it was what Konate did with these passes that made him stand out.
He performed eight passes into the ultimate third, proving he can break traces like we used to see from Joel Matip, and had a fantastic sport taking part in lengthy balls, too.
It was his looking move in Luis Diaz‘s course that set the Colombian up for his first, then his move, additionally, that put Liverpool on the break for Darwin Nunez‘s strike.
After the match, Arne Slot went out of his strategy to reward Konate’s decision-making within the build-up to the targets.
“The finishes in each conditions have been actually good, however I believe the lead-up to each targets was totally different and that’s why it was actually good,” stated the pinnacle coach.
“Within the first purpose, Ibou (Konate) recognised rather well that that they had a excessive final line and so they needed to press us actually excessive, utterly totally different to Nottingham Forest.
“He recognised the correct second to play the ball in behind.
“In the second, we wanted to play Mo (Salah) and Trent (Alexander-Arnold) reacted fantastically by coming beneath, bounced move [to] Mo and he simply went all the best way with the ball everywhere in the pitch and assisted to Lucho (Diaz).”
Luis Diaz works each methods
Talking of Diaz, he scored twice and paid again Slot’s religion in choosing him over Cody Gakpo, who performed excellently in opposition to AC Milan on Tuesday.
Other than his two targets, his different two photographs have been each heading in the right direction and he accomplished 30 of his tried 32 passes. He additionally performed his full 72 minutes with out ever being dispossessed.
To play for Liverpool, although, you possibly can’t simply have flare going ahead; it’s essential to additionally work very exhausting defensively and Diaz’s stats inform us he did precisely that in opposition to Bournemouth.
The Reds’ No. 7 made 4 recoveries and managed to win 4 of his seven duels, in addition to making a head clearance.
This all resulted in him being rated the perfect on the pitch by Fotmob, with a rating of 9.2 out of 10.
FotMob is a necessary app for each fan to maintain updated with their crew or comply with soccer worldwide, their unbelievable new options present all you possibly can ever need and knowledge you by no means knew you wanted! You may obtain the FotMob App right here.
