James Pearce has actually recommended that a person man in specific at Liverpool might now have ‘a real fight’ on his hands to begin routinely under Arne Slot this season.

Having become part of the France team which reached the semi-finals of Euro 2024, Ibrahima Konate has actually just associated the Reds today following his time off after the competition.

That has actually appropriately provided Jarell Quansah the chance to build on his excellent development project at Anfield, and it’s one that the 21-year-old is taking as he mastered the 2-1 win over Arsenal in Philadelphia.

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Pearce singled out the Warrington native for appreciation in his post-match decision for The Athletic and sounded a threatening note for his senior centre-back associate.

The reporter composed: “Quansah took Konate’s place last season and the Frenchman, who could feature against Manchester United in South Carolina on Saturday, faces a real fight to reclaim it.”

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With Virgil van Dijk ensured of a beginning berth when readily available, there’s successfully one centre-back location up for grabs at Liverpool; and having actually made the t-shirt towards completion of 2023/24, Quansah is making a really strong case to keep it when the brand-new Premier League season starts later on this month.

Konate hasn’t been assisted by several injury lacks at Anfield, his own loss of type in the latter weeks of last term or his absence of any action at Euro 2024, with William Saliba and Dayot Upamecano being Didier Deschamps’ go-to collaboration for France.

With a couple of days’ training under his belt today, the 25-year-old might be in line to begin versus United at the weekend. If he does, his efficiency on the night might be essential to his hopes of remaining in the group to face Ipswich on 17 August.

At his finest, the Frenchman can be a rock at the heart of the Liverpool defence, however his loss in 2024 has actually shown to be Quansah’s gain, and today it’d be tough to validate benching the English child for the Premier League opener.

Konate has a handful of training sessions and 2 pre-season video games in which to make his case to Slot before then. Let’s hope that he can provide the head coach with an enjoyable choice headache by the time the Reds endeavor to East Anglia 16 days from now.

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