How Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate have taken their partnership to a new level

New York Times

25-02-2025

The Instagram caption accompanying Virgil van Dijk's post, with one of the images featuring him and fellow centre-back Ibrahima Konate, summed up the pair's performance against Manchester City perfectly — 'Locked In'.
They had in fact locked Pep Guardiola's side out, swallowing the keys in the process as they left the Etihad Stadium with a clean sheet in Liverpool's 2-0 victory over the reigning Premier League champions.
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The centre-back partners were the foundation of the red wall that proved impenetrable, stating their case to be considered the best pairing in Europe.
Konate believes they are, talking about it in a press conference before the PSV game. 'This season, yes, I think so,' Konate said. 'Everybody knows Virgil, everybody knows his quality. For me, he is the best, no one is better than him in this position.'
Defending is an art and often the consistency of simplicity, rather than the heroic slide tackle or block, is what separates the best from the rest.
What made Van Dijk and Konate's performances so impressive against City was the calm and controlled nature of it. Never were they left scrambling or making last-ditch interventions. Instead, they were positioned appropriately to deal with whatever was thrown at them.
In the 20 games they have started at centre-back together, Liverpool have averaged 0.9 goals conceded per game compared to 1.3 in the seven games in which they have not both started. They have played together in all but two of their side's 11 league clean sheets.
Individually, both are having excellent and dominant seasons. Van Dijk (69.4 per cent) and Konate (68 per cent) rank third and seventh respectively for duel success rate among Premier League defenders who have played 1,000 minutes this season. Konate (77.3 per cent) has the best aerial duel success rate, while Van Dijk (71.7 per cent) has the fifth highest.
The trepidation felt heading to the Etihad — regardless of title challengers Arsenal's defeat by West Ham United a day earlier — largely revolved around Liverpool switching off in key moments. Regardless of the struggles Guardiola's side have experienced, they are a side that can capitalise on defensive weaknesses.
Liverpool's 2-0 victory over City at Anfield in December was their seventh clean sheet of the season from their opening 13 matches. In the following 13 games, they kept only three.
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Despite the lack of clean sheets, it was never the case that Liverpool had fallen apart defensively. The theme emerging was Slot's side conceding soft or avoidable goals that could and should have been prevented. It led to dropped points against Everton and Aston Villa most recently.
Slot referenced the expected goals (xG) total of his side during a tricky run of form Liverpool were experiencing in January. They were winning the battle consistently, but that was not always leading to victories. In nine of their 13 games before they visited City, their opponents had overperformed their xG total.
Against City, Liverpool needed their two centre-backs to lead by example and they both produced one of their best performances of the season. It is rare Slot's side lose the possession battle, but for long periods, Liverpool had to remain focused as City moved the ball, waiting for gaps they could exploit to open up.
With Erling Haaland watching on from the stands, not fit enough to make the bench, the lack of a focal point and presence was beneficial. Van Dijk and co have largely dealt with the Norwegian international well when coming up against him, but Manchester City missed their target man and main goalscoring threat.
Instead, Guardiola's side posed a different challenge, using Phil Foden and Omar Marmoush in a similar style to how Liverpool used Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones as two No 10s and playing without a central striker. It required Van Dijk, in particular, to be brave under instructions from Slot.
Foden frequently dropped into deeper areas and Van Dijk followed him into midfield.
In the first example, he conceded a foul…
… whereas in the second example, he forced Kevin De Bruyne, who he followed on this occasion, to pass backwards.
The strategy did come with a risk, opening up a gap down Liverpool's left channel. Alexis Mac Allister, as highlighted in both of the clips above, was used to plug it if Van Dijk was unable to win possession.
When Manchester City were able to progress the ball down Liverpool's inside right and left channels, Van Dijk and Konate were able to cover each other.
After Jeremy Doku turned away from Konate, Marmoush was able to run beyond him, but Van Dijk was in position to clear his cross.
When Van Dijk was required to move wider with, on this occasion, Savinho in possession, Konate made a goal-saving interception to prevent the ball from getting to an unmarked Marmoush.
With Trent Alexander-Arnold struggling against Doku, Konate, alongside team-mates Ryan Gravenberch, Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah, began to offer more protection. Repeatedly, the France international would drift to the right to back up his right-back.
It allowed him to stop crosses…
… or passes being played into the box by the Belgium international.
It left Van Dijk with added responsibility in central areas and he stood up to the challenge. The 33-year-old finished the game with nine clearances — eight of which came via his head, the most he has made in a Premier League game this season.
He was able to deal with low crosses to the near post…
… or high crosses. The example below shows Konate move over to help Alexander-Arnold, while Van Dijk is in a central position to head the cross away.
The Netherlands international was also able to cover earlier passes, such as in the example below, in which Doku's pass behind Konate was intercepted by his partner.
It wasn't perfect as a similar move minutes after Liverpool scored a disallowed goal in the second half allowed Marmoush to force goalkeeper Alisson into action — but it was a rare good opportunity created by City.
Most of the time, one of the centre-backs took control of the situation to deal with any threat, as Van Dijk did below to clear a Savinho cross.
Despite City's 66 per cent possession, they finished the game with an xG total of 0.6, lower than Liverpool's 0.7, even though the home side had double the number of shots — 16 to eight.
Van Dijk and Konate have been a formidable partnership since the latter's arrival in 2021. Getting them on the pitch together has been a problem, with the pair starting 58 of a possible 141 Premier League games. Twenty of those have come this season and if both can stay fit for the rest of the campaign, Liverpool's chances of winning multiple trophies increase.