Among the odd wrinkles to Liverpool’s frustrating day out against Chelsea on Saturday was Ibrahima Konaté being withdrawn in the 56th minute for Curtis Jones. While Konaté has had his fair share of troubles this season, he was not one of the players who had been particularly poor on the day.
After the match, head coach Arne Slot said the substitution was a result of quad discomfort for the French centerback rather than a purely tactical change. Unlike Mikel Arteta, Slot thought it best to bring the player
off before a more catastrophic injury occurred.
“I don’t know if it is a big injury, but what I do know is he limped a little bit and when I asked him he said he felt his quad a little bit. Then, for me, all alarm bells go off because in another sprint you never know if that is going to go good.”
Ryan Gravenberch dropped in alongside Virgil van Dijk at centerback after Konaté exited the match, with Curtis Jones stepping into midfield. Gravenberch had some significant ball progression from the deeper role, helping to create some of Liverpool’s offensive resurgence in the second half. According to Slot, this was a tactical wrinkle he had thought of prior to the injury for Konaté, he was just forced into the change sooner than expected.
“It was also already a substitution I had in mind, maybe for a few minutes or a little bit later, because the right centre-back had a lot of ball possession and we needed to create from that position. We all know Ryan [Gravenberch] is quite good in that. It might be OK that he went off early enough but it was clear I had to take him off because he was limping.”
Konaté will now undergo a medical evaluation after joining up with the French national team to see if he will be fit to take part during the international break. France is will face Azerbaijan and Iceland in World Cup qualification.
Liverpool will certainly hope the injury is a minor one with only Joe Gomez as a true senior team center back as depth. Geovanni Leoni was lost for the season after sustaining an ACL injury a couple weeks ago, and underwent a successful surgery this past week. If Konaté is expected to miss time after the international break, Ryan Gravenberch and Wataru Endo are the other likely candidates to step in beyond Joe Gomez.
