“Every player wants to play” – Liverpool star admits it is “not easy” to be warming the bench at Anfield

Ibrahima Konate has been restricted to just four starts since signing for Liverpool in a £36m transfer from RB Leipzig in the summer. The 22-year-old has to fight for a place in one of the two centre-back roles against the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip, Joe Gomez and Nat Phillips.

But the France Under-21 international is determined to prove he is worthy of more game time for Liverpool in the coming weeks.

Ibrahima Konate says it is "not easy" being out of the starting line-up as he adapts to his new life with Liverpool:

“For sure, it is not easy because every player wants to play, you know? But I know I am young and I need to work to play. I was in Germany and now I am in the Premier League in Liverpool, one of the best teams in the world."

"The intensity is different and you have a lot of big players here. It is not easy, but we play football for that," he added.

Konate has started two of Liverpool's last three Premier League games. The defender will hope to be involved once again when their league campaign resumes at home to Arsenal on Saturday evening.

The defender is setting his sights on featuring in great success with Liverpool this season:

“Of course, who doesn’t have this ambition to win the Premier League? But for now I think we need to be focused game by game. We have Premier League, we have Champions League – we have lots of games, but with this team I think we can do a big thing this season. Winning both is not easy. But if we can, then why not?”

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He's built for the Premier League: Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp discusses Ibrahima Konate

Liverpool v Crystal Palace - Premier League

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has only had words of praise for Ibrahima Konate since the defender impressed on his debut:

"Ibou is an incredible talent, obviously. So, he came really young to Germany and that's a tough league to play for a young centre-half. He did there incredibly well. He came over to England and when you see him, he's built for the Premier League."

"Physical-wise, he's a machine, has the speed we need, likes challenges, has a really good football knowledge, anticipating situations early, all these of kind of things," the Liverpool boss added.