Liverpool are working hard to tie their biggest stars down to new deals.

Despite the Reds pulling off some excellent moves already this summer, they still have two areas needing to be looked at; a striker and a centre-back.

The latter is an area that appears most uncertain as there are a variety of different scenarios that could occur.

Liverpool currently have four centre-back options, soon-to-be three when Jarell Quansah joins Bayer Leverkusen, although Joe Gomez could still also depart.

Report: Liverpool star’s future cast further in doubt as Napoli could perform major U-turn	NN: Reds make £43m attacker 'top priority' and Chiesa's future in doubt: Tuesday's Liverpool transfer round-up	Reds make £43m attacker 'top priority' and Chiesa's future in doubt: Tuesday's Liverpool transfer round-up

That could leave just Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate at some point this summer, although the Frenchman’s future is also uncertain after entering the final year of his Anfield contract.

This highlights just how severe Liverpool’s centre-back problems could get and why they need to do everything in their power to tie Konate down, but that looks even more unlikely now.

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Liverpool would have been left disappointed to lose Trent Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid, but even more so after leaving on a free transfer – even if they did get £10m in compensation.

They will want to avoid a similar scenario in the future but with the Spanish giants keen on their French defender too, the Reds will need to seriously up their offer to him.

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According to The Guardian, Konate is said to be disappointed with Liverpool’s contract offer that was tabled in January, with talks stalling ever since.

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The structure of the offer is the problem as Konate wants a higher base salary, whereas Liverpool only want to offer more in performance-based bonuses.

The delay over offering him a new deal was due to the club prioritising the contracts of Mohamed Salah and van Dijk, although no progression has been made since.

The Guardian concluded by saying that there is a growing worry among those at Anfield that he will depart for free at the end of the season, although they will not be forced into overpaying when talks continue later this summer.

It goes without saying, Liverpool perform much better when it is Konate alongside van Dijk instead of any other pairing.

The Frenchman is certainly one of the best defenders in the world and at just 26, he has not even reached his peak yet.

Injuries have been his problem, however, and he regularly misses a good chunk of games each season, although missing just eight last season means it was one of his better years.

Speed, power and stature are the traits that ‘Ibou’ possesses that make him so good and, alongside van Dijk, he has developed into an elite level Premier League defender – a key reason why the Reds must keep him.


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