How can Konate improve?

Liverpool boss Arne Slot was full of praise for centre-back Ibrahima Konate before his side face Ipswich Town on Saturday.

The France international has been playing with an injury to his knee but said before the Reds' Champions League match in midweek against Lille: "I can die for this team, it's fine. My knee will come back 100% really soon, it's fine. When I saw Joe [Gomez] with his injury, I had to come back quicker and not really think about my knee."

Konate has made 22 appearances for Liverpool this season, with 15 coming in the Premier League.

Slot was asked how good Konate could become and said: "He's already very good. He's a centre-back who, without even touching the ball, is impressive because he is so strong and tall.

"One of the things he could improve is his play with the ball, bringing the ball out from the back. I would not say he was poor in that but he could improve and go to another level.

"He works really hard to improve that and I already see this improvement. Defensively, he is of the highest standard. He's fast, he's strong, he wins duels. He can cover for his team-mates as well if needed.

"Defensively, there is not a lot he can improve. From all the ball possession we have, we would like to create even more chances than we are doing now and that starts from bringing the ball out from the back."

Konate is out of contract next year and when asked if he had been offered a new deal, he simply replied "yeah" and then added that it was "another conversation".

Liverpool cannot afford to lose a centre-back of his quality in his peak years, especially given the superb partnership he has formed with Virgil van Dijk.

Asked whether his partnership with Van Dijk is the best in Europe at the moment, Konate said: "This season, yes I think so. Virgil, everybody knows his quality. For me, he is the best. Nobody is better than him in this position. I've said in interviews always, I just want to be better than him one day and that's why I work hard to reach this level one day."