🔴EOTK Insider Opinion: Why Ibrahima Konaté's display against Zlatan Ibrahimović was significant 🔥
The Frenchman was once again pivotal despite the challenge of coming up against another great of the game
When lauding Ibrahima Konaté for his efforts against the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimović, the obvious counterargument to go with is that, to put it bluntly, both are rather old.
Ronaldo, still racking up the goals domestically and abroad, is 36 years of age and set to turn 37 in the opening quarter of 2022.
Likewise, the veteran AC Milan attacker is far from enjoying the spring of his youth at 40-years-old, though has notched away eight goal contributions in 13 appearances this term (across all competitions) - albeit, none of these have come in the Champions League.
[Ibrahima Konate helped keep ex-Galactico, Cristiano Ronaldo, goalless in a five-goal demolition of Liverpool’s rivals Manchester United]
As such, it can be rather tempting for neutrals to simply shrug off the feat as if it had come against a Championship-level forward.
But the reality of the situation, if we’re willing to take age into account, is that we’re also talking about this performance coming from a 22-year-old summer signing who was paired with fifth-choice centre-half, Nathaniel Phillips.
Ahhh, but he had world-class (arguably the globe’s leading centre-back) defender Virgil van Dijk around to provide reassurance when coming up against Ronaldo at Old Trafford - so we imagine some pointing out.
Whilst that’s certainly true, it was hardly the case that the Frenchman didn’t have any work to do against the Portuguese international during the 5-0 drubbing of our rivals in their backyard.
Once again, we reiterate that a 22-year-old defender handled two physically challenging attackers seemingly without breaking a sweat.
It’s testament to the way Konaté utterly bullied and controlled Ibrahimović that the former Barcelona man lost his cool with the centre-half in the second-half, wrapping his arms around his opponent’s waist before tossing him to the turf in a WWE-style move.
It wasn’t all frustration on the Swede’s end, however, with the No.11 spotted grasping his marker’s shirt after the full 90 minutes had gone. So, at the very least, a mark of grudging respect there for Ibrahima Konaté.
To be clear, this isn’t to state that the Parisien is the finest thing since sliced bread; there have been some imperfect moments scattered across the games that have followed from the international break.
Ultimately, of course, that’s to be expected of a player who is two years younger than our fifth-choice centre-half in Nathaniel Phillips and our former first-choice option in Joe Gomez.
There will arguably be more challenging tasks to come, particularly should the defender come up against the likes of Kylian Mbappe or Robert Lewandowski in Europe - a distinct possibility for us in the knockout stages.
However, Konaté has thus far established his defensive identity both with and without the calming presence of Virgil van Dijk beside him.
The No.5 does have some way to go before reaching the stratosphere currently solely occupied by the Dutch international.
But if he continues to build on the foundation of positive performances he’s delivered since his switch to the English top-flight, Liverpool potentially need not worry about what a future without our talismanic No.4 might look like.
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