Ibrahima Konate has potential to develop into world-class centre-half, gushes Peter Krawietz
Ibrahima Konate has the potential to become world class
|Liverpool's assistant manager Peter Krawietz claims to see world-class potential in Ibrahima Konate and believes that the Frenchman can do great things at Anfield. The highly-rated defender was signed from RB Leipzig for ÂŁ36 million after spending more than four years in Germany with the club.
Owing to the unfortunate injury to star defender Virgil Van Dijk, along with the likes of Joel Matip and Joe Gomez, bolstering the defensive ranks have been Jurgen Klopp’s top priority for Liverpool. Despite relying on the likes of Rhys William and Nat Philips, the signing of Ibrahima Konate is considered to be vital for the Reds after the Frenchman's impressive performances for RB Leipzig over the last few years.
Graduating from the Bundesliga club alongside the likes of Dayot Upamecanyo and a few others, Konate is considered to be one of the top defenders with absolute potential for world-class development at Anfield. With the proper mix of height and physicality countered with comfortable ball-playing abilities, Krawietz believes Konate will become one of the top defenders playing alongside Van Dijk and thus strengthen Liverpool's backline.
"In him, we see the absolute potential to develop into a world-class centre-half. That’s what we want. He is a young player still but also experienced. He played a few years in the German Bundesliga and for several of the French national teams. His qualities are pretty obvious. He is a smart centre-half in terms of defending and of course, he has the physical body to be a proper centre-half," Krawietz said, reported Goal.
"In England we all know what the things are they need to bring to the team: they need to be tall, they need to be quick, they need to be strong in the air and of course, it’s important always for us as well that they fit in our tactical profile. In him, we see all of these qualities. In defending, he was well educated in Leipzig and we saw that he will be able to learn all the details we want from our centre-halves.
"He is also very, very comfortable and calm on the ball, which is so important for us and our style of football, which is to realise a really calm and safe build-up for our attacking situations. We see all these qualities in him and that is why he is such a promising and interesting package," he added.
