Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate is the latest player to dismiss the narrative that Liverpool’s season cannot be labeled extraordinary without winning multiple trophies.
Disappointments like being edged out by Newcastle United at Wembley in the Carabao Cup final and getting knocked out of the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain at the round-of-16 stage, not to mention a stunning FA Cup fourth-round fall to Championship side Plymouth Argyle, can’t overshadow the Reds’ Premier League title aspirations.
Former Anfield hitman Michael Owen cast doubt on Liverpool’s season’s merit, but skipper Virgil van Dijk dismissed such talk this week—and Arne Slot found the idea laughable.
Konate further debunked this notion, stressing the Reds’ strong position outweighs lackluster performances across various fronts. He put it plainly to the fans: “If you asked every player of every fan what do you want,” he said.
“What you will pick, ‘play for every trophy but you don’t know what you will get at the end of the season or maybe a chance to win the Premier League’, I think all of them would say yes (to) maybe a chance to win the Premier League.
“We don’t have to listen to the media and think ‘oh, because we didn’t win the FA Cup, the Carabao (Cup) and we are out of the Champions League that we had a bad season.’
“Nobody was expecting us to be where we are today. We just have to do everything and give our everything every game until the end of the season, game after game. And if we achieve something special, everyone will be very happy.”
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Since joining Liverpool from RB Leipzig in the summer of 2021, Konate has already lifted the League Cup and FA Cup with the Reds. However, he confesses that missing out on the Premier League and Champions League titles in his first season is fuelling his ambition as Slot’s team edges closer to glory.
“I hope I will win every trophy. Every trophy and another one (this season) as well,” he expressed in a chat with Sky Sports. “This is our target for every player, for the manager, for the staff, for the club, for the fans.
“We know we have 12 points more than Arsenal but we don’t think it’s done. We know we have to work a lot and do everything until the end of the season to achieve something special and we work on it every day.
“I was close to winning the Premier League, I was close to winning the Champions League. Every single game I play this season for Liverpool, I just remember how close I was to winning this but I didn’t.
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“At the end, nobody remembers this moment. For people to remember this, you have to win it. And that’s why we have to be focussed and ready.”
Konate, having been part of Liverpool’s double cup victory parade in 2022, knows that winning the Premier League would spark even more extraordinary celebrations, highlighting the remarkable nature of the Reds’ current campaign.
“Not one of us, not even the players who won the Premier League in 2022, don’t know what will happen if we win it,” he remarked. “This will be special for everybody in this club. Just when we won the Carabao and FA Cup, I was like, ‘what is this? !’ I think I became crazy, I was like ‘what is this? ! This is crazy!’
“And our physio Chris Morgan said to me, ‘if we win the Premier League, you have no idea what will happen.’ And I was like, ‘what do you mean? ! I hope we will not die!’ But no, this will be very special. It’s not done and we just have to give everything.”
