Liverpool’s Premier League title defence has been stunted by two serious knee injuries to first-choice centre-back pairing Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez.

The pair are set to spend the majority of the season on the sidelines, leaving a sizeable void in the heart of the Liverpool backline.

Jurgen Klopp has admitted he would like to add a new centre-back, but the finances are likely not there for a January purchase.

However, the Reds have been linked with a move for RB Leipzig centre-half Ibrahima Konate. So is he the man that Liverpool need?

The Merseysiders have been shrewd and meticulous in the transfer market in recent seasons, traditionally buying players based on whether they will fit into the Liverpool mould and making them better, as opposed to bringing in big-money signings at the peak of their powers. The summer addition of Thiago Alcantara was arguably the first time under Klopp that Liverpool purchased a player who was already world class.

With Van Dijk and Gomez poised to return to the first-team fold as starters next term, Liverpool will not be signing an instant first-choice centre-half, rather a promising, initially third-choice defender with the potential to blossom into regular starter over the years.

Konate fits this criteria; he is a player they can develop. He is just 21, and his injury history means he has just one full season of senior football under his belt.

+3 @DieRotenBullen pic.twitter.com/IRccB3rQ4s

— Ibrahima Konate (@IbrahimaKonate_) December 16, 2020

However, this injury record is a cause for concern given the problems Liverpool have been contending with this season. The defender was sidelined for 27 games during the 2019/20 season due to a torn muscle fibre, before missing nearly five months in 2020 due to a hip flexor problem. He’s currently sidelined with an ankle injury – quite the back catalogue for someone aged just 21.

Liverpool’s recent approach has been entering the market because they have to, not simply buying for the sake of buying. In addition to their financial restraints, this is part of the reason the Reds are expected to have a relatively quiet January window despite their shortages at centre-half; they don’t want to be panicked into a purchase, they want to land a candidate who ticks all the right boxes.

One reason Liverpool were cited with cooling their interest in Bayern Munich’s David Alaba was because he did not fit all of their criteria for a centre-back; one of which was his height. At 1.8m, the Austrian international was considered marginally too small, in comparison to Gomez (1.88m), Van Dijk (1.93m) and Joel Matip (1.95m).

Standing at 1.94m, height is a box that Konate does tick. This requirement is to aid aerial ability – an obvious necessity for a central defender. In terms of aerial duels won throughout his career, the RB Leipzig man has averaged 2.6 per game (via WhoScored). His highest came during the 2018/19 season – the only full season of senior football he has managed thus far in his career – where he was winning 3.6 aerial duels per game on average.

This is lower than Van Dijk, who has averaged 4.5 throughout his career. However, this is fractionally higher than Gomez and Matip, who have averaged 2.1 and 2.3 respectively.

In other key defensive areas, Konate continues to be relatively similar to the current crop of Liverpool centre-halves. In terms of average tackles per game, Konate (1.6) edges out both Gomez (1.4) and van Dijk (1.1), but is bettered slightly by Matip (1.9).

In terms of interceptions, his average of 1.5 per game matches that of Gomez but falls marginally short of Van Dijk (1.8) and Matip (2.2). However, both Matip and Van Dijk’s career average is pulled up by their respective spells at Schalke, Celtic and Southampton, where the pair would routinely average more than two interceptions per game each season. In no season at Liverpool have they averaged more than two interceptions per game.

In possession, Konate is a match for Liverpool’s current centre-backs. His average career passing accuracy is 80.7%, compared to Van Dijk (86.6%), Gomez (83.7%) and Matip (83.2%). Each Liverpool centre-back’s passing accuracy improved with age, suggesting Konate too has the makings of a competent ball-playing centre-half.