Real Madrid fans should anticipate more than just one defensive upgrade at the center back position with Jose Mourinho requesting a full on rebuild of the back four, but the Merengues have already gotten off to a great start for when Florentino Perez presumably wins his reelection against Enrique Riquelme and then Mourinho officially arrives.
Because along with Mourinho - and talented right wing back Denzel Dumfries - Ibrahima Konate will be arriving at the Santiago Bernabeu once Florentino's win is confirmed. Fabrizio Romano is confirming earlier reports from El Chiringuito's Marcos Benito that Real Madrid have agreed to sign Konate and will make the deal official after Flo's election. There is currently a verbal agreement in place between the free agent center back and Madrid.
Reportedly, Konate will make a salary similar to that of his former Liverpool teammate Trent Alexander-Arnold, who joined Real Madrid last summer. Free agents are not cheap, despite being free in terms of the transfer fee, as they command high wages, and Konate, when he is at his best, is a world-class center back.
Ibrahima Konate is a real center back
Although Konate struggled last season, so did pretty much everyone else at Liverpool. The seasons before that, Konate was one of the world's best, and Real Madrid fans have a lot of respect for him over the years from their Champions League knockout duels.
Aside from the value of having a world-class center back who is 27 years old as a free agent, which is an even better deal than what Real got with limited seasons out of aging free agents David Alaba and Antonio Rudiger in recent years, Konate, specifically, helps an issue Real Madrid have had for years.
Ibrahima Konate is a big, physical guy who can dominate in the air on set pieces, and in addition to being a great athlete in terms of size and speed like Eder Militao, Konate is a guy who can read the game well and is very intelligent, both on the ball in his comfort as a passer and off it as a marker.
Real Madrid have been so weak and unassertive in their own penalty box. Aurelien Tchouameni was obviously a disaster in these center back specific skills at the position, but Antonio Rudiger is a terrible zonal marker and loses his man all the time, so his physicality does not matter on aerial balls, crosses, and corners.
Meanwhile, Dean Huijsen can read the game and pass, but he, despite his height, is terrible in the air and gets bullied pretty easiliy. Raul Asencio is almost certainly going to be sold, and he, like Rudiger, was almost brutish in how he approached the game, letting runners pass around him like a turnstile while ball watching so bad that his physical presence did not matter.
Konate is much smarter and much better in the air than those guys, and his talent level is closer to Eder Militao. Real Madrid fans were frustrated with how corners and crosses almost always led to goals, and now with Konate, they have a real presence and a guy smart enough to not get tricked by his man repeatedly. That's huge.
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