The Reds secured the signing of a talented Frenchman at the end of May by triggering the release clause on his Leipzig contract.
Ibrahima Konate is “a promising and interesting package”, says Liverpool assistant manager Peter Krawietz who rates the defender highly.
Konate was understood to be a target for a number of European giants following his rise to prominence with RB Leipzig last season.
It was Liverpool who won the race for his signature, with a reported £36 million required for tempting the Bundesliga outfit into letting go of the 21-year-old defender.
The Frenchman is now up for facing fierce competition for a spot at the heart of the Liverpool defense in the coming season from the likes of Joe Gomez and Joel Matip.
“In him we see the absolute potential to develop into a world-class centre-half. That’s what we want,” Krawietz told Liverpool’s official website.
“He is a young player still, but also experienced. He played a few years in the German Bundesliga and for several of the French national teams.
“His qualities are pretty obvious. He is a smart centre-half in terms of defending and of course he has the physical body to be a proper centre-half.
“In England we all know what the things are they need to bring to the team: they need to be tall, they need to be quick, they need to be strong in the air and of course it’s important always for us as well that they fit in our tactical profile. In him, we see all of these qualities.
“In defending, he was well educated in Leipzig and we saw that he will be able to learn all the details we want from our centre-halves.
“He is also very, very comfortable and calm on the ball, which is so important for us and our style of football, which is to realise a really calm and safe build-up for our attacking situations. We see all these qualities in him and that is why he is such a promising and interesting package.
“Now we are very much looking forward to adding him to our group of centre-halves. We are very, very positive about him and very optimistic about the development he will need to do. It will be a process to learn all these things, but his quality and talent are so obvious.”
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