Jurgen Klopp earned something of a reputation for plastering a grin across his face when things started to go wrong for his Liverpool team.
After many rapturous performances from his team, culminating with a Carabao Cup final victory over Chelsea in February despite a mountainous pile of injuries, Liverpool's form took a tumble in the closing months of the 2023/24 campaign, with several stars inexplicably losing their way.
Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez had their detractors as wastefulness proved to be the crux of the nosedive, but defensively, Ibrahima Konate fell off a cliff.
The France centre-back was rebuked for his "dreadful" defending by The Athletic's James Pearce during that sticky spell, with a replacement for the Klopp signing seemingly needed this summer.
Liverpool lining up centre-back
According to Caught Offside, Slot is interested in making Sporting Lisbon defender Goncalo Inacio his first signing as Liverpool manager, with the Anfield side first putting in work to sign the Portuguese during last year's transfer window.
Inacio, who is 22, was being actively pursued by Liverpool last summer but penned a new contract with Ruben Amorim's side and has since played an instrumental role in Sporting winning Liga Portugal.
He's contracted to his outfit for another three years but Inacio is now eager to make the move to the Premier League. All Liverpool need to do is activate his £51m release clause and present an enticing package, having identified the centre-back as their 'main target'.
Goncalo Inacio's style of play
Jarell Quansah, aged 21, enjoyed a meteoric rise during Klopp's final year and even displaced the struggling Konate during the final run-in in the Premier League, starting ten of the final 15 matches in his stead, but Liverpool desperately need to add another layer.
Enter Inacio. The Sporting star is not the traditional type of defender, often relaxed and loose in the backline, seeking space to get on the ball with regularity and start promising moves from deep. He'd be a counterbalancing force in this regard, with analyst Raj Chohan even hailing his "immense recovery speed & coverage of space".
Having risen from Sporting's academy ranks, Inacio has completed 171 senior matches for his sole side to date, scoring 15 goals and adding nine assists.
He completed 49 appearances during a bumper campaign for Amorim, indeed playing a key role in winning the Portuguese top flight. As per Sofascore, the 6 foot 1 titan started 28 matches in Liga Portugal, keeping 13 clean sheets, completing 89% of his passes and averaging 4.7 ball recoveries and 4.0 successful duels per game.
He's truly one of the most "complete" rising defensive talents around – as has been said by talent scout Jacek Kulig. With Arne Slot now anointed as Liverpool's new head coach, FSG will be working furiously to identify the perfect new star to sit in front of Alisson's goal.
He'd be a brilliant addition, but would he be able to cement a regular starting berth for himself? He's certainly got the style. And he could even leave Konate with much work to do in returning to form on Merseyside.
Why Inacio could displace Ibrahima Konate
At his best, Konate is a monstrous presence in Liverpool's rearguard. Irrepressible and industrious, he blends high-level technical quality with raw physical power to great effect.
Pass completion
89.1%
88.1%
Passes attempted
88.1
83.62
Progressive passes
8.56
6.21
Progressive carries
1.27
1.35
Successful take-ons
0.40
0.43
Shot-creating actions
1.60
1.22
Tackles
1.74
2.21
Clearances
2.32
3.12
Aerial duels won
1.81
4.30
The statistical comparison conveyed in the table above highlights Inacio's elite ball-playing ability, though does suggest that Konate holds the edge over him in defensive areas.
Is this actually the case? Liverpool's French defender is undoubtedly a more robust defensive unit, holding a significant aerial advantage, though Konate won 60% of his ground duels in the Premier League last season while Inacio came out on top 55% of the time in Liga Portugal.
Inacio, moreover, is still only 22 and would have plenty of time to continue his development and refine his prowess in rebuffing danger. It's worth noting that three years ago, at the end of Konate's final campaign with RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga – before signing for Liverpool in a £36m deal – he finished the year with a 53% ground duel success rate.
But while Inacio has his foibles, his passing game makes for the perfect kind of player to ensure Slot's system is inculcated into the Liverpool team without a hitch.
Furthermore, Virgil van Dijk is arguably the most aerially adept centre-half in world football and could find his skill set melds with that of Inacio – Van Dijk ranks among the top 3% of centre-backs for aerial duels won per 90 and incredibly won 81% of such duels in the Premier League last season.
Slot's Feyenoord team ranked 2nd in the Eredivisie for build-up attacks across the 2023/24 term (148) – exactly the same as Liverpool in the Premier League. However, the Dutch side completed 72 direct attacks as opposed to 99 for Liverpool, capturing the possession-centric shift that is going to occur at Anfield.
Inacio's line-breaking distribution would be an invaluable tool for the Reds next year, and while selling Konate would be ludicrous with such slim pickings in central defence, there's a high chance that the Portugal international could usurp him as the star man alongside Liverpool's Dutch captain.
Journalist Antonio Mango remarked that Inacio is "so accomplished in possession it's insane", and while his skill set differs from Konate's, signing him might see the Liverpool colossus pushed toward the periphery.
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