French media disagree on Ibrahima Konate despite Liverpool man outshining William Saliba

Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate drew some contrasting verdicts after France beat Belgium in the UEFA Nations League yesterday. Captaining the side when Aurelien Tchouameni was sent off , there were some mixed reviews about his performance.

Le Fiagro gave the Liverpool man a solid 6/10 and noted: "Too relaxed and author of inaccuracies at the beginning of the match, he recovered afterward. Fortunately, as his defense partners took on water he was solid, authoritative and strong against the vivacity of Openda, he was the rock that Les Bleus needed."

Foot Mercato gave Konate a 5/10 and wrote: "Present in central defense alongside William Saliba, the Liverpool defender was much more consistent than his colleague. Conquering in the duels, he was the author of several welcome interventions to avert the danger.

"Author of a large number of clearances and a sense of interception that allowed him to scratch several balls, he nevertheless had a rather worrying waste at the restart. Cautioned in the 45th minute."

Dicodu Sport also said that Konate was better than his central defensive partner, the Arsenal center-back Saliba, but gave him a rating of just 4/10, pinpointing his self-destructive tendencies in the first half. "The Liverpool player was a little better than his partner in the middle, but there was nothing to get excited about," it stated.

"He also had a catastrophic start. He lost the ball which led to Leandro Trossard’s big situation (18th). On the corner that followed, he completely missed his header and created the danger all by himself. But he was sometimes able to recover, notably when he came back hard on Lois Openda (27th). And he too was absent on Aurelien Tchouameni’s red card."

And finally, Eurosport rated him 5/10, suggesting that he got better as the game went on. "His match got off to a bad start," it said. "Caught by a call at the near post from Openda (13th), he seemed curiously destabilized as on this ball lost in the middle (18th) which could have cost dearly.

"But he recovered by taking the upper hand on Openda (27th) and during a second period where his physical superiority ended up serving him. In short… We feared the worst, but Konate pulled himself together."

Liverpool.com says: Konate is hugely talented but he does seem to divide opinion at times. His passing can be further improved but he is a strong defender and clearly valued by his national team too given he was made captain. France won against a decent team in Belgium so it can't have been that bad a performance!