Both Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez missed last weekend’s 3-0 victory over Brentford, with manager Jurgen Klopp confirming the absence of the pair was injury-enforced. Meanwhile, the French Football Federation would later reveal that the former had suffered a hamstring injury and, having pulled out of the France squad, faced two weeks on the sidelines.
The irony of Konate withdrawing from international duty would not be lost on those of a Reds persuasion, coming just a couple of weeks after Klopp had hit out at France boss Didier Deschamps for his use of the centre-back amid ongoing injury setbacks. “I love absolutely everything about Ibou, but the problem is Ibou had injury problems from time to time and Mr Deschamps played him 90 and 87 minutes in the two games (for France),” Klopp told RMC Sport last month after leaving Konate out for the home meeting with Toulouse.
“So we used the time now to give him a little rest. He could have played (at home to Toulouse) of course, but he has to play on Sunday again.
“That’s why I spoke to Ibou and told him ‘tell Mr Deschamps that’s how you rest a player’. Not three minutes, no, a full 90. “Besides that, we are more than overly happy with Ibou. Fantastic boy and super player and France can be really happy to have him.”
Konate had already missed two games this year with a previous muscle injury, after missing 21 games because of injury in the 2022/23 season. Meanwhile, his earlier setback during the current campaign also resulted in him missing the September international break.
Throw in his latest setback, along with Gomez, and it fuels the narrative that Liverpool’s centre-back options are rather fragile. The Reds are a club still scarred by the 2020/21 campaign, which saw them lose all senior options at the heart of defence to season-ending injuries. But despite such a reputation, is their availability record really as bad as feared?
Klopp’s side have played 133 matches to date since the start of the 2021/22 season. Over that period, Virgil van Dijk has made 103 appearances, while Joel Matip has played 76 times. Meanwhile, Gomez and Konate have been called upon 67 and 64 times respectively.
Liverpool headed into the November international break with two of their four senior centre-backs carrying injuries.
