Ibrahima Konate gives STUNNING reply amid contract speculation | OneFootball

Liverpool and Ibrahima Konate are currently a logger-heads for a number of different reasons.

Firstly, the Frenchman's contract situation remains unresolved and he's now into the last year of his deal, meaning it's crunch time. In January, he can agree a pre-agreement for a free move away.

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Tying him down to a new deal before then is imperative, although the club's attempts have been unsuccessful so far, much to everyone's dismay. His future at Liverpool will go down to the wire.

However, his performances so far this season have also been a cause for concern, not just in terms of his form compared to Virgil Van Dijk, but also in terms of his fitness. Earlier this week, his national team manager Didier Deschamps gave us an injury update, but we were all waiting for confirmation.

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And in France's fixture last night against Ukraine, we got all the answers we needed from him.

Konate's timely reminder of his class

Throughout 90 minutes on Friday night, Konate delivered three clearances - one of which was off the goal line - a blocked shot, two interceptions, one tackle, three accurate long balls and four duels won.

Concerns of an injury were put to bed and his cramp was no more. His fitness doubts will only fall into insignificance the more he plays and now that he's up to speed, he might now return to form.

The performance was comfortably his best of the campaign so far and given his future is uncertain, we need him to be delivering to a high level while we've still got him in a Liverpool shirt. Arne Slot will have been encouraged by what he saw and the fans have been given food for thought as well.

As with almost every player, you will see a ridiculous amount of introspection and backtracking when they're in a below-par run of form and at one point over the last few weeks, Konate was considered 'just another centre-back partner for Van Dijk' in an attempt to dismiss the 26-year-old's calibre.

When he's at his best, Liverpool have a player that is more than capable of leading the defence for the Reds and everyone knows it. His captain is more consistent and plays generally at a higher level, despite his age, but the comparison between the two has never been fair. They're different players.

But Liverpool are not fighting tooth and nail for keep any ordinary centre-back. We're talking about an extremely talented player, which is exactly why a move for Marc Guehi was considered during the summer transfer window - a high calibre player needs to be replaced by another one.

Despite the ongoing speculation, hopefully Konate can to add more stability to his performances on the pitch, while everything else remains up in the air in terms of his Liverpool future. Whether that happens or not, we'll have to wait and see. But his efforts for France dismissed a lot of fans' doubts.