Liverpool’s new signing Ibrahima Konate is likely to make his debut on Tuesday according to boss Jurgen Klopp.
The Reds splashed the cash to sign Konate, paying the £36million release clause in his RB Leipzig contract back in May.
Liverpool endured defensive issues last season as Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip all suffered injury woes.
Klopp does also have Nat Phillips, Rhys Williams and Ben Davies at his disposal, but Konate’s arrival is an exciting one.
The French centre back has emerged as one of the top young centre backs in Europe with RB Leipzig, though has endured some injury problems of his own.
Van Dijk and Gomez may still be Klopp’s first-choice centre back pairing heading into the new season, but Konate will be pushing for first-team action from the word go.
The 22-year-old has only played twice since the end of April; once for RB Leipzig and once for France Under-21’s, so he will be looking to get up to speed quickly.
Some have wondered when Konate will make his Liverpool debut, and Klopp has given a very clear answer – tomorrow!
Klopp has told the Liverpool official website that Konate will be available as Liverpool play back-to-back 30-minute games against Wacker Innsbruck and Stuttgart in Austria on Tuesday.
“Tuesday,” said Klopp. “He’s had a good rest, had a normal pre-season so far, so yeah, he can play on Tuesday. For Ibou it is important that he gets minutes quickly, that’s what pre-season is for,” he added.
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