When Ibrahima Konate set a new Liverpool record with a dominant performance against Sheffield United, Jurgen Klopp wondered if he was going to lie.
With Joel Matip returning to the starting line-up after a long-term ACL injury, Conat struggled at Bramall Lane.
According to FotMob, he made 19 of his 24 tackles on the night and according to Skwawka, he won 14 of his 14 tackles in the air, a Premier League record for a Liverpool player.
No player came close to winning more headers. Wataru Endo, Jack Robinson and Vinnie Souza are next with five wins, while Dominik Szoboszlai has the next wins with 11.
Konate were kept busy en route to a 2-0 win that included some awkward moments as the Blades looked to make a good impression under returning manager Chris Wilder.
In his post-match press conference, Klopp joked he would “ask” whether Konate’s header tally would change Wilder’s attitude. “Ibu had a fantastic game, I don’t know how many headers he should have hit,” Klopp said.
“I was going to ask Chris Virg if he could shoot the ball from the other side to overcome this challenge!””Then all of a sudden [Ibrahima] got a bit intense and we gave up two goals and it was a bit difficult at that point.
“It is perhaps no surprise that Konate had to fend off an attack from Sheffield United on Wednesday night. “The match is decided in the moment. You don’t have to have 80% of the ball to win a football match. “Sometimes 10% is enough.
We have to do well,” continued the manager.”Obviously we have a lot more than 10%, but that leaves more room for error. You can see.”Aerial battles were crucial for Liverpool, with Konate winning 100% of tackles, while the back four of Van Dijk (80%), Joe Gomez (80%) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (100%) were also outstanding .
All dominated the air, along with Endo (71%).Sheffield United attempted 60 long balls on the night, converting just 10 of them (16.7%), while goalkeeper Wes Potherium managed just 3 of his 24 attempts (12.5%).
