Virgil van Dijk hailed Ibrahima Konate for his ‘great impact’ since joining Liverpool after the pair combined to help beat Manchester City in the FA Cup, he told BBC Sport (16/4, 17:46).
Jurgen Klopp elected to start the Dutch and French enforcers at Wembley, with Joel Matip falling to the bench. The Reds boss has favoured the Cameroonian in the Anfield side’s last four Premier League matches, plus their 3-3 Champions League draw at home to Benfica.
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The midweek meeting on Merseyside took Matip to 36 appearances for the season so far in all competitions. But none of the 30-year-old’s outings have come in the FA Cup having watched all five on the bench. Konate, on the other hand, has opened all five of their ties.
Klopp has carefully blooded Konate into his Liverpool plans since paying RB Leipzig £36m for the 22-year-old last year. Saturday’s showdown at Wembley was just his 22nd outing for the Anfield side, with just eight Premier League appearances and none since March 5.
Konate has watched nine of the Reds’ 12 top-flight matches in 2022 so far as an unused substitute. The FA Cup has been more welcoming, though, with five starts from five, and the France Under-21 enforcer opened the scoring after just nine minutes this Saturday.
Virgil van Dijk hails Ibrahima Konate for ‘great impact’ in Liverpool v Man City
Konate showed far more intent than Nathan Ake to meet Andrew Robertson’s early corner to break the deadlock. The centre-half jumped early and hung in the air before floating the ball into Zack Steffen’s net. He now has three Reds goals after also netting against Benfica.
Despite his rare usage by Klopp to date, Konate has impressed Van Dijk with what he has given Liverpool and displayed against Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final, as well.
“He has made a great impact, he is working hard every day,” Van Dijk said. “He has to perform when he is called upon and he is doing just that.”
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