Ibrahima Konaté: “When The Work Is Hard, We Will Be Better”

Preseason is never easy, especially with Liverpool under Jürgen Klopp (unless you happen to be ageless wonder James Milner). The work is hard and repetitive, it’s hot, and there is no payoff of winning a meaningful game in the near future. Liverpool FC’s newest signing, Ibrahima Konaté, knows that the that hard work is the building block for success.

“For sure [it’s tough], but I don’t care about this,” Konaté said in an interview with Liverpoolfc.com. “We are here, we are a good and big team and we have to run and we have to win the intensity in the games. For this, the training is hard but when the work is hard we will be better.”

One of the nice side effects of all of that hard work, besides the conditioning of course, is it will help you sleep well at night.

“I’m sleeping well because I have to sleep and don’t have a choice! When I go to my bed I am tired and I have to sleep. I sleep immediately!”

For Konaté, this preseason is also an opportunity to get comfortable in the new team set up, as well as to get to know his teammates. The big Frenchman is multilingual, so getting on with the other squad members has been relatively easy.

“I am very happy to be here with the team, I am very happy to start my first minutes with the team,” said Konaté . “I have a good relationship with all the players in the team and for this, I am very happy to be here. I can speak French with some players, but I can also speak English with other players – and German, too. It is easy to speak with the players and communicate, I don’t have a problem with this.”

Now all Konaté needs it to pick up some Scouse and Scottish to be able to communicate with his outside backs.