Liverpool has Virgil van Dijk and Joël Matip ‘cross’ who provided what Luis Díaz absence removed
While Luis Díaz was able to rescue a point for Liverpool at Kenilworth Road on Sunday, the Reds missed his fleet footwork on the left wing for most of the match. Luton did a good job of limiting the impact of Mohamed Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai on the opposite flank, so the Colombian would’ve posed a serious test to the likes of Issa Kaboré and Teden Mengi on the Hatters’ right.
The reasons for Díaz’s absence are as eminently understandable as they are heartbreaking. Think back to what he achieved against another low block side when Everton visited Anfield though; Diaz’s running got Ashley Young booked twice in the first half before it helped win a penalty for the opening goal after the interval.
Without the former Porto man, the Reds barely dribbled past a Luton player and it is becoming a theme. While Liverpool’s fewest take-ons completed this season occurred in the win over Aston Villa, the Luton draw was second – with just six – and two of the next three saw points dropped at Brighton and (understandably) Tottenham.
Clearly there is a separation between correlation and causation; the Reds didn’t fail to win those games purely thanks to a relative lack of dribbles. But it is interesting that the last time Liverpool had over 70 per cent possession and completed fewer take-ons was in the loss at Nottingham Forest last season — a match with which the Luton draw felt very similar — and the equalizer on Sunday featured a successful dribble in the build-up.
It was not delivered with the trickery which Díaz often deploys and it came from an unlikely source. In the 95th minute, Ibrahima Konaté evaded a challenge from Ross Barkley and played the ball to Harvey Elliott. He in turn delivered a great cross to collect his fourth assist in Liverpool colors.
The Reds’ French center-back is a surprisingly efficient dribbler, even if many of his efforts won’t have been completed in such advanced areas as they were at Luton. The other three players who were successful with at least one take-on in the match were Diogo Jota, Mohamed Salah and Ryan Gravenberch. They have career dribble success rates (in league football, per FBRef) of 46.1, 48.5 and 65.8 per cent respectively; Konaté stands above them at 80.3 per cent.
Stick him on the wing, Jürgen! Perhaps not, eh? It might be time to make greater use of the French international’s ball carrying ability though.
Konaté is averaging 1.54 progressive carries per 90 minutes in the league this season, making 2023/24 his best campaign for this metric. With his final three seasons with RB Leipzig next in line, it’s clear he was accustomed to progressing the ball up field for them, yet Liverpool hasn’t exploited his ability as much.
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His 1.54 average puts him ahead of Joël Matip and Virgil van Dijk, both for this season and across their time with the Reds. It is just 0.07 behind Joe Gomez, who has had the advantage of playing in more advanced positions while covering at full-back.
The data on progressive passes essentially tells the same story. Konaté has averaged 6.54 per 90 this term, ahead of any Matip or Van Dijk campaign in which they completed significant game time. More notably, the 24-year-old was successful with 16 progressive passes at Luton, the joint-third most by any Liverpool player in a league or European match since the start of last season.
Only five teams in the 2023/24 Premier League have a worse success rate for dribbles than Liverpool, the three promoted teams among them. We praise van Dijk for his cross-field diagonal passes to the wings and Matip for his line-breaking gambols up field. Perhaps it’s time we all recognized that Konaté can bring something vital from the back four up to the front line too, offering a cross of the former’s progressive passing and the latter’s upfield adventures. Without it, the Reds would probably have lost against Luton.
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