Ibrahima Konate

[3 Stacks]

11 minutes ago, Daisy said:

Well, Fekir hasn't missed many games since then. 

He may not be missing games but Fekir's physical ability noticeably declined after his knee issues. The club read that correctly. He used to be an absolute dynamo and he turned into a simple luxury #10 with good technique. 

[Barrington Womble]

1 hour ago, Supremolad said:

Didnt Gerrard used to be fairly injured a bit when he was younger? I think there are young players who grow out of these things to a certain extent. So I don't get why we would instantly write off Konate based on one significant long term injury and a couple other shorter term ones.

 

All transfers are gambles in a way. You can sign a player with no significant injury record and then he becomes a sick note ( e.g Keita). There just aren't any guarantees. Before we signed Thiago, there were also lots of shouts about him being very injury prone. However, the games he missed this season were only because of a bastard tackle by Richarlison. He hasnt picked any other injury since he got fit. There just isnt a nailed on approach to these things.

 

 

all transfers are gambles, that is dead right. but to compare this lad to gerrard when he was young is pure nonsense. this lad since the start of last season had had an 8 month injury, a 3 month injury and 7 week injury. and if we had a robust backline it might be worth taking a gamble (I wouldn't like). but all 3 of our current centre backs have major over half season injuries and are almost certain not to kick a ball for us again this season. we have no idea if they will come back the same player or how often they will play with niggly injuries as is normal after such long lay offs. or in the case of matip and gomez, they just don't get on the pitch too much. our 1st thought here should be getting a player who is going to play. 

1 hour ago, TheHowieLama said:

If by pulling out you mean they decided he was too expensive and were unable to successfully negotitate then yea, I guess. Whatever. You have become SpyBee-in-esque when it comes to this stuff.

 

You're talking some shite there. We had walked away and were putting the money into fekir. we got serious when roma were forced to negotiate.  

1 hour ago, Scott_M said:

The opening point was you saying we’re to lazy to negotiate. I’ve pointed out recent examples where we have.

 

You’ve now listed signings where we haven’t negotiated (although I’d argue some of which we definitely have) and that none of these players look to be a success. 
 

Are you now saying because we didn’t negotiate these players (even though some we did) that they weren’t a success? If so, that’s like saying we shouldn’t have signed Miner on a free because Degan on a free was shit. 

 

I think my point is clear but for clarity - 

 

We aren’t “too lazy to negotiate”, we look for under valued players (whether that is contract / release driven or whatever) and maximise they’re potential. Some of them have clearly been disappointments (Keita massively) but whether we negotiated for them not is irrelevant. 
 

To say we are “too lazy to negotiate” is simply nonsense because there simply aren’t many examples of it. 

Jota was about as close as it got to a real negotiation. Even then we picked a lad who was no longer a regular which made the negotiation easier. Anyway, it is pointless going on. We wouldn't be anywhere near this crock if he didn't have a a release clause. i would sooner we went after someone who hasn't spent best part of the last 18 months in the treatment room, rather than pick someone who makes Edward's life a bit easier. I would prefer we made Klopp's easier by identifying footballers who might be capable of getting on the pitch. 

[Daisy]

31 minutes ago, 3 Stacks said:

He may not be missing games but Fekir's physical ability markedly declined after his knee issues. The club read that correctly. 

Maybe but we didn't sign anyone else like him afterwards until the cheap signing of Minamino 

[Scott_M]

6 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

all transfers are gambles, that is dead right. but to compare this lad to gerrard when he was young is pure nonsense. this lad since the start of last season had had an 8 month injury, a 3 month injury and 7 week injury. and if we had a robust backline it might be worth taking a gamble (I wouldn't like). but all 3 of our current centre backs have major over half season injuries and are almost certain not to kick a ball for us again this season. we have no idea if they will come back the same player or how often they will play with niggly injuries as is normal after such long lay offs. or in the case of matip and gomez, they just don't get on the pitch too much. our 1st thought here should be getting a player who is going to play. 

You're talking some shite there. We had walked away and were putting the money into fekir. we got serious when roma were forced to negotiate.  

Jota was about as close as it got to a real negotiation. Even then we picked a lad who was no longer a regular which made the negotiation easier. Anyway, it is pointless going on. We wouldn't be anywhere near this crock if he didn't have a a release clause. i would sooner we went after someone who hasn't spent best part of the last 18 months in the treatment room, rather than pick someone who makes Edward's life a bit easier. I would prefer we made Klopp's easier by identifying footballers who might be capable of getting on the pitch. 

Quite - with all these crocks, bit part players from mid-table sides, release clauses & out of contract cast offs, it’s absolutely incredible how we’ve managed to achieve anything. 
 

Maybe, at some point, you might just have to accept, the people at the club, y’know, actually know what their doing these days? A wild theory, I know. 

[3 Stacks]

You just have to trust the club with the injury stuff. They have the complete medical information on the player, we have the internet. 

[Ne Moe Imya]

Not just the injury stuff, either. Our recruitment department is the best in the world based on the evidence of the past 5 seasons.

I might look at some of the players we're linked to with some scepticism, but that's mostly because I think the links are made up. Once we sign the player, I know the odds are that the recruitment guys are going to have it right.

 

I thought Werner over Jota was an absolute no-brainer, for example, and our team went the other way. Suprise! Turns out they knew what they were doing.

[joe_fishfish]

46 minutes ago, 3 Stacks said:

You just have to trust the club with the injury stuff. They have the complete medical information on the player, we have the internet. 

No chance mate. I'll PM you the details of the protest march on Kirkby later.

[3 Stacks]

5 minutes ago, Ne Moe Imya said:

Not just the injury stuff, either. Our recruitment department is the best in the world based on the evidence of the past 5 seasons.

I might look at some of the players we're linked to with some scepticism, but that's mostly because I think the links are made up. Once we sign the player, I know the odds are that the recruitment guys are going to have it right.

 

I thought Werner over Jota was an absolute no-brainer, for example, and our team went the other way. Suprise! Turns out they knew what they were doing.

On paper, Konate is the perfect prototype for a centre back. Besides the injury stuff, there isn't much to question.

[MOGLET]

I dont know why we just dont go to a donkey sanctuary in pakistan and buy a few three 1/2 legged ex working nags. At least they could run for more than a month before they needed shooting.

[Duff Man]

Hmm.

[clockspeed]

Well we must be confident VVD is making a full recovery and will have a couple more bomb proof seasons.  So it will be VVD and a n other we have plenty of choice I'm all in on this guy 

[Sugar Ape]

Ibrahima Konate: Swapping frisbee for football, wanting to be a striker like Ronaldo and what Klopp was told to do

By Raphael Honigstein

 

 

 

In the spring of 2017, Ralf Rangnick travelled to Paris to talk to a teenage second-division defender who was mostly on the losing side when he played. Ibrahima Konate’s first 13 appearances at senior level for Sochaux had yielded seven defeats, a penalty shootout loss, three draws and just two wins, which perhaps explained why few of Europe’s top sides were tracking him.

 

RB Leipzig’s scouts though, had looked past the team’s poor results and even the player’s own mistakes. They saw a wealth of potential that simply needed to be harnessed.

 

Konate, one of eight children of immigrants from Mali in West Africa, was 6ft 4in tall at 17, fast, conscientious in his positioning and careful with his distribution. RB’s analysts were certain he was ready to play for Leipzig in the German Bundesliga straight away, that there would be no need nor sense to have him gain more experience at sister club Red Bull Salzburg in the Austrian top flight first.

 

What piqued Rangnick’s interest even more than the fact that Konate’s contract expired that summer was his personal background. After sitting down with him and his parents for a couple of times in the French capital, RB’s then-sporting director gained a strong sense of Konate’s work ethic and intelligence.

 

His parents had impressed the importance of education and self-betterment on their children; Konate’s older siblings were all smart and professionally successful in a variety of jobs. The player also had offers from Germany’s Cologne and French sides Lyon and Toulouse but Rangnick was determined to win his signature.

 

“You give Ralf an hour with a player, and that’s it,” Konate’s former agent Bruno Satin recalls with a laugh. “He’s very persuasive.”

 

Rangnick showed him videos of RB Leipzig’s aggressive style and told him he’d benefit from playing alongside fellow Frenchman Dayot Upamecano, who had joined from sister club Salzburg that January; he emphasised that the club and their coach, Ralph Hasenhuttl, would do everything to help him progress.

 

“It was the perfect move for him, because Ibrahima is the kind of kid who always wants to learn,” Satin tells The Athletic. “He’s incredibly humble but at the same time very determined.”

 

Club officials at Leipzig were immediately taken aback about his maturity: within the space of a few months, he had managed to do his baccalaureat (A levels), pass his driving test and adjust to life in a new country and in the Bundesliga, without so much as missing a beat.

 

That overnight success had been a long time coming, however. Growing up, Konate had initially preferred to play frisbee rather than football. The bug only bit him when he was eight but grew so strong that he could hold his own in four vs four street matches against the team of his brother Sikou, six years his senior. A year later, the man known as “Ibu” joined amateur side Paris University Club, playing as a striker. He modelled his game on the Brazilian Ronaldo.

 

His performances as an attacker caught the eye of Paris FC, the city’s second-most important outfit after Paris Saint-Germain. But his development stalled. Konate was only getting game time in the third and second teams of the under-11s, as the competition in the forward positions proved too strong.

 

One coach, Reda Bekhti, had the idea of moving him further back down the pitch.

 

Tried as a holding midfielder, Konate was a revelation. His new-found consistency earned him a move to Sochaux’s academy at the age of 15. Konate’s parents sanctioned him leaving Paris for a town five hours away, close to the Swiss border, because they liked the educational facilities attached to the club.

 

His time in Sochaux Under-17s was marked by another positional change, and the one that came to determine his career: he was moved to centre-back by coach Eric Hely.

 

Some months later, Konate was invited to train with the senior squad. It took six months more for him to make his professional debut, against title-bound Monaco in the League Cup in January 2017.

 

Speaking to goal.com, Sochaux’s coach at the time Albert Cartier recalls having a chat with Konate before that quarter-final tie. “I told him, ‘If I have to tell you that you are playing against Monaco and Falcao, what will be your reaction?’ He replied, ‘I will concentrate, I will make sure not to get exposed, and I will try to take in as much information as possible about the player I have to mark’. I found that answer very mature. He was very lucid and gave things a lot of thought.”

 

Konate did well. Very well, as it turned out. “I was not sure before the game, because I did not know him well, but after five minutes, I thought this guy is a monster,” Sochaux’s then right-back Mickael Alphonse said.

 

Against Leonardo Jardim’s star-studded side, featuring the likes of Radamel Falcao, Thomas Lemar, Joao Moutinho, Bernardo Silva and Tiemoue Bakayoko, as well as Kylian Mbappe and Fabinho as unused subs, Sochaux led until the 83rd minute, then battled to a 1-1 draw after extra time. They eventually lost on penalties to opponents who a few weeks later would knock Manchester City out of the Champions League’s last 16 but Konate, in particular, was a winner. “He played like a boss,” Cartier said.

 

Nine months later, he was starting for Leipzig in the Bundesliga, with his “Ibu” nickname having morphed into “Ibuprofen”. The moniker and his form when fit suggest he could well solve Jurgen Klopp’s defensive headaches.

 

Asked by The Athletic about Upamecano’s breakout performance in last season’s Champions League quarter-final win over Atletico Madrid, Rangnick insisted that Konate was just as promising, “a potential world-beater”.

 

There’s a perception that the player has been injury-prone. In reality, he’s suffered one serious injury: to his hip flexor muscle. It needed surgery in France last summer after a recurrence and is the main reason his game time has been limited, and the hype turned down a lot. Previous and subsequent complaints have been very minor, though. Rangnick, for one, is certain that he is destined for great things. “Whereas Dayot relies a lot on his physique and his pace, Ibu plays with his head more. He’s got great anticipation and positioning,” he said.

 

A few weeks ago, Liverpool manager Klopp made some discreet enquiries back home in Germany, to canvass opinion about both Leipzig’s highly-rated centre-backs. Which one was better, or at least better suited to the Premier League? The feedback he received could be summed up as “buy both”. Upamecano’s announced move to Bayern Munich this summer has since narrowed the choice.

 

In Leipzig, they will be sad to see Konate go. A popular member of the dressing room, the 21-year-old is famous for his love of colourful tracksuits and Dragon Ball-themed socks, as well as being funny with his one-liners. Satin is in no doubt that his former client will come good at his next club, whether that’s Liverpool or someone else, his patchy involvement over the past couple of years notwithstanding.

 

“He’ll be a success wherever he goes,” he says, “because he’s a very serious and focused guy.”

[Supremolad]

1 hour ago, Barrington Womble said:

all transfers are gambles, that is dead right. but to compare this lad to gerrard when he was young is pure nonsense. this lad since the start of last season had had an 8 month injury, a 3 month injury and 7 week injury. and if we had a robust backline it might be worth taking a gamble (I wouldn't like). but all 3 of our current centre backs have major over half season injuries and are almost certain not to kick a ball for us again this season. we have no idea if they will come back the same player or how often they will play with niggly injuries as is normal after such long lay offs. or in the case of matip and gomez, they just don't get on the pitch too much. our 1st thought here should be getting a player who is going to play. 

 

I posted this earlier and I'm posting it again just to provide context to those injuries. Yes, you have a right to question his injuries but the situation only looks worse on paper. The young lad has had only one significant long term injury. As stated by a journalist who knows more than a bit about the player.

[Barrington Womble]

1 hour ago, Scott_M said:

Quite - with all these crocks, bit part players from mid-table sides, release clauses & out of contract cast offs, it’s absolutely incredible how we’ve managed to achieve anything. 
 

Maybe, at some point, you might just have to accept, the people at the club, y’know, actually know what their doing these days? A wild theory, I know. 

I think it's a pretty fair argument that the shite we have kicking around the squad that we don't use, combined with the players we can't shift because we want too much have contributed to our worst run of form in the history of the club. The quality of the fringe players and their fitness records are truly tested once some regulars get injured rather than the odd rotation appearance they normally have. 

3 minutes ago, Supremolad said:

I posted this earlier and I'm posting it again just to provide context to those injuries. Yes, you have a right to question his injuries but the situation only looks worse on paper. The young lad has had only one significant long term injury. As stated by a journalist who knows more than a bit about the player.

I'm pretty sure people said stuff like this about chamberlain before we bought him. But just look at how often the lad gets on the pitch. He's been a 1st team player at RBL for nearly 4 years. He's managed a little over 100 games in all comps. 

[TheHowieLama]

Seems Leipzig noticed he was out of contract that summer.

I wonder if other clubs do similar? That would be pretty clever.

[Lee909]

If all this FSG, Red Bird or whatever it is does go and get other sister clubs we could do worse than nab a couple of Red Bulls scouts or someone like Rangnick to be part of a core looking after all the clubs. Would allow us to get round visa issues buying round the world and dumping players in France, Switzerland etc until they get the international games to get permits. 

[Scott_M]

1 hour ago, Barrington Womble said:

I think it's a pretty fair argument that the shite we have kicking around the squad that we don't use, combined with the players we can't shift because we want too much have contributed to our worst run of form in the history of the club. The quality of the fringe players and their fitness records are truly tested once some regulars get injured rather than the odd rotation appearance they normally have. 

 

That’s a completely different point to the “we’re too lazy to negotiate”.

 

The fringe players have undoubtedly let us down this season, but that’s nothing to do with how we came about signing them.

 

Even though his performances last season weren’t great, Ox contributed a bit in assists & goals, especially through the end 2019 & start of 2020. We bought him because there was value in his contract ending.

 

Keita gives us little bits here and there but that’s about it really. But we were that desperate to sign him, we agreed a deal 12 months in advance (there was no release clause).

 

I completely agree they’ve not stepped up this season and, if it was me, their Liverpool careers would be in the balance. But that’s got nothing to do with the opportunistic or desirable reasons why we signed them.

 

I have two questions I meant to ask earlier...

 

1) You said were only going for Konaté because he has a release clause. Is that positive or negative? To me, it sounds like we taking advantage of a potentially good situation but I’m not sure you feel the same way. 
 

2) Haaland has a release clause of £65m in the summer of 2022.
 

Or Mbappe is in the last year of his contact this summer.

 

Stretch targets obviously, how would you feel about us taking advantage of those situations? 

[TheHowieLama]

In hindsight there isn't any value in the AoC transfer. He would have been free 12 months later or scooped up Jan 1 by someone in Europe. But at the time he stiffed Chelsea to come to us and:

 

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said he was "really happy" to have signed an "exciting" talent he "didn't need to think twice" about.

The German described Oxlade-Chamberlain as a "positive" player who is "willing to take risks" and "has the mentality and desire to get even better".

He added: "This is someone making a tough decision to leave one great club and come to another great club and I think he had many options, so to get him means I am delighted.

"He didn't make an easy decision but I think he made a great one to go on this journey with this squad of talented boys and our great supporters. I welcome him to the Liverpool family."

[VladimirIlyich]

12 hours ago, joe_fishfish said:

Maybe we're signing him on a pay as you play deal. I fucking doubt it though.

'Pray if you play' more like.

[Jack the Sipper]

I know fuck about the lad, but from what I've read he seems to have two attributes that Klopp wants in his defenders - height and pace, both of which are vital with the high line we play at our best. But, I can't get past the fact that he does have a poor injury record, and if this catastrofuck of a season has taught me anything, it's that we really shouldn't be taking punts on players, especially defenders, with records like his.

[Rick Sanchez C-137]

16 hours ago, 3 Stacks said:

On paper, Konate is the perfect prototype for a centre back. Besides the injury stuff, there isn't much to question.

 

Might be true, but a squad with Matip, Gomez, Ox, Keita and Henderson (he misses a fair chunk too), we should only be signing titanium players from here.

[aws]

Fuck titanium.  Adamantium is where it's at.  

[Russ Atmosphere]

Welcome to Liverpool. Don't be shit.

[Heinze]

Bet he suddenly turns to shit or gets injured straight away. The Liverpool Way.

[Anubis]

So we are lining up a deal but haven't actually contacted his club. So we are aggressively monitoring him then. Christ.