Jurgen Klopp admits it wasn’t perfect to push Ibrahima Konate back into action for Liverpool so soon after his World Cup disappointment with France. But the Reds boss is convinced the centre-back is in the right frame of mind to assume extra responsibility with Virgil van Dijk facing around a month on the sidelines following a hamstring injury. Konate suffered a miserable time on his comeback at Brentford on Monday, scoring an own goal for the home side’s opener and then outmuscled by Bryan Mbeumo for the third goal late on as Liverpool lost 3-1. The 23-year-old had only 15 days earlier come off the bench to feature for France in their dramatic World Cup final defeat to Argentina in Qatar, after which he was given a short period of rest before linking back up with the Reds. And Klopp accepts the coaching staff were taking a step into the unknown when deciding how to best integrate Konate back into the squad.
Jurgen Klopp said: “It’s new for all of us. I’ve known Ibou for a while now and we had a brief look at him and spoke to him (after the World Cup) and he looks completely fine with everything. Ibou is a very young fella, he understood the situation in the right way. He knows the future is bright for the French team, so it didn’t feel for them for a second like it was the last chance or whatever. That group are all desperate to get back and play in whichever tournament is next. Physically he played a couple of games (at the World Cup) but it wasn’t the most intense. He played in the final for a few minutes, then had eight days off. He was training smoothly. Around two weeks after the final he was for the first time in contention. Is that perfect? Of course not. Nothing is perfect in these moments. I don’t know how long we should give people to deal with such a burst of such a big dream. But he is completely fine.”
Injuries meant Konate – who is poised to start the FA Cup third round visit of Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday evening – was making only his fifth Liverpool appearance of the season against Brentford.
Jurgen Klopp added: “His first game back, a lot of good moments but obviously a difficult game for defenders the way Brentford played. Yes, he was not absolutely on top of his game, we all know how good he can be. The own goal was massively unlucky, nobody hit the ball and it hit him in the wrong direction. The last goal is for me a foul but we can’t change that anymore. He’s a young player, he can improve anyway. He is full of desire and didn’t look for a second as though it’s too much for him at the moment. I think we have dealt well with the situation, but I don’t know if it was perfect because we’ve had no experience with that, playing football a week after a World Cup and introducing players pretty quickly. None of us knows. We tried our best.”
With no game next midweek and Liverpool having not played since Monday evening, Klopp is expected to name a strong side against Wolves. And the Reds boss has confirmed Alisson Becker will start in goal ahead of Caoimhin Kelleher, who began the early rounds last season due to Alisson being unavailable first due to a positive coronavirus test and then after returning late from international duty with Brazil.
Jurgen Klopp said: “Alisson has always been the FA Cup goalkeeper. Last season, Caoimh played (the fourth round) game because Ali had only just came back the day before the game.”
Andy Robertson, Joel Matip, Fabio Carvalho, Curtis Jones, Joe Gomez, Jordan Henderson and Stefan Bajcetic are among those pressing for a starting role, while new signing Cody Gakpo will be on the bench at least after training with the squad for the first time this week.
