“I love the way he really tormented Arsenal last night, he showed Arsenal that they’re a small club compared to Liverpool and Man City”- Liverpool goalkeeper Allison Becker praises ‘amazing’ Liverpool star who deserves to be given the man of the match last night against Liverpool- Not Salah and not Arnold

‘Amazing’… Alisson says 24-year-old might just have had his best game for Liverpool

Alisson Becker was thankful for his defence as Liverpool battled to a 1-1 draw with Arsenal tonight.

It was a good game on Saturday evening, as either side could have taken three points. In the end, some sloppy attacking play from Liverpool and some good defending at the other end of the pitch meant they settled for just one.

There were some excellent performances across the team – as well as some poor ones. But in it all, one man really stood out for the Reds: Ibrahima Konate.

Ibou was colossal from start to finish against Arsenal. And speaking to LFCTV after the game, Alisson paid tribute to the 24-year-old. Asked whether it had been Konate’s best game for Liverpool, the goalkeeper said that it might just have been.

“Yeah I agree, one of the best,” Alisson admitted. “Ibou, everybody knows how strong he is and he’s improving season after season. As he’s a big man. strong man, I think nobody realises it but he’s still young and he’s improving, being a more mature player alongside Virgil – who had an amazing game as well.

“They had an amazing game because the other players helped them to do their job. In one-v-one situation against Martinelli, against Saka, against Gabriel Jesus, they are amazing strikers. What they did, the way they played, the way they defended was amazing.”

Konate takes Alisson praise

We actually think Konate’s best performance for Liverpool was the Champions League final in 2022. The Frenchman was absolutely immense that day, although the Reds ended up losing to Real Madrid.

But perhaps tonight’s display against Arsenal may just run it a close second.

Konate stood up against absolutely everything the Gunners threw at him this evening. As Ali says, Van Dijk also deserves praise for that.

But keeping up the trend we see of teams leaving Virgil alone and attacking on the other side, Konate had more to do.

Every time Arsenal had a shot on goal, Ibou seemed to be in the way of it. He stopped several dangerous looking counters, including one inch-perfect tackle on Martinelli.

There was one slight blot on Konate’s copybook, as one late surge up the field with the ball almost led to a late Arsenal counter-attack. But in pretty much everything else, Liverpool’s No.5 came out on top.

Bizarrely, Sky Sports failed to recognise this and hand him a well-deserved Man of the Match award. Instead, William Saliba was given the gong for a nothing like as influential display. 

Konate may have been robbed of that, but just like Alisson, we saw how good he was tonight. Top class, big man.