Ibrahima Konate says he asked Klopp about his minutes on joining Liverpool

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Ibrahima Konate says he explicitly asked Jurgen Klopp what his playing time would be like at Liverpool before joining the Reds. The boss gave an interesting answer.

Liverpool paid RB Leipzig £36m to sign Ibrahima Konate in the summer. It was an interesting but much-needed transfer.

On the one hand, Liverpool suffered badly with injuries at centre-back last season. Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez started the season as the club’s only senior centre-backs but all three suffered season-ending injuries. Van Dijk in October, Gomez in November and Matip in January.

And so signing Konate made sense. Liverpool needed more depth and the 22-year-old certainly delivered that.

But on the other hand, all three senior players would return for this season. So what, exactly, would Konate’s playing time be like?

That’s something Konate himself wanted to know when Liverpool approached him. He says he asked Jurgen Klopp straight up – how much would he play?

“I asked him if I will play or not and he said, ‘yes, you will play’,” Konate told Sky Sports. “He did not tell me, ‘yes you will play a lot like you are the first defender, or you will not play a lot like you are the last defender.'”

Ibrahima Konate at Liverpool

Well, it’s now March and Konate has 14 starts and three substitute appearances. That’s not all that bad, considering the competition for places.

Van Dijk and Matip are the clear first-choice players there, while Konate plays more than Gomez. The Englishman doesn’t appear to be 100% fit.

Klopp has trusted Konate in big games, too. He came on against Chelsea in the EFL Cup final as well as starting at Old Trafford earlier this season. He’s slotted right in and wonderfully well, already feeling like an established squad player.

So we don’t believe he can complain about his squad time and Klopp actually gave a very good answer to that question. He didn’t promise him anything but didn’t mislead him – Konate plays but not as a star player.

But it’s important to remember that Konate isn’t just about the here and now. He’s a player with massive potential and one Liverpool signed for the future more than anything. While he’s only playing here and there these days, he’s certain to be a first-team fixture in the coming years.