What happened when Liverpool signed Kalidou Koulibaly

Kalidou Koulibaly has been heavily linked with a transfer to Liverpool, so we gave the Senegal international his wish. This is what happened.

We’ve seen reports about Liverpool’s interest in the Napoli man, so I logged onto Football Manager and used my handy data editor to speed things along a little bit.

I kept Jurgen Klopp in charge and didn’t change anything else – I even let the German spend some money in the transfer window and he made some interesting acquisitions.

Forget Timo Werner, those transfer rumours don’t exist in this kingdom. In came Celtic forward Odsonne Edouard as one for the future, while Ajax sold their left-back Nicolás Tagliafico to be used as Andy Robertson’s back-up.

With one of the Premier League’s finest defensive double acts in the pomp of their career, how would Liverpool get on?

I did notice one thing that might cause trouble later down the line, and that was Kalidou Koulibaly‘s lack of composure and concentration might be an issue when things start to get a bit hairy.

But his tackling, heading, marking, positioning, work rate etc etc etc are all excellent. Baring those two surprise deficiencies, this is one hell of a central defender.

And so it proved, as Liverpool were flying high and by January occupied second in the league. Football Manager is always prone to throwing up a surprise package here and there, and so it proved with Callum Wilson and Arsenal.

The game had the Gunners in first place, with the best defence in the league. While the Reds were hot on their tail with a partnership of Koulibaly and Virgil van Dijk bedding in.

Early exits from both cup competitions allowed Klopp to focus on the Premier League and Champions League, and his first choice defensive partnership remained steady as the season progressed past January.

Joe Gomez and Dejan Lovren played just six games between them in all competitions, while Joel Matip started 27 times as the manager cast aside one of England’s hottest prospects.

But his harsh selection decision would be vindicated as Liverpool did the double, winning the Premier League and claiming their second Champions League in a row.

Koulibaly ended up starting just 21 games in the league with an average of 7.0, while he disappointed on the continent.

Liverpool ended up overtaking Arsenal and pipping them to the title by a single point as Olivier Giroud scored 19 goals and finished third in the Golden Boot race.

So a successful season for the side, but not necessarily the one we expected from Kalidou Koulibaly. He was the man who helped assure in some fantastic success, but has blocked the path of Gomez along the way.

Getting a decent average rating can be seen as a success, but again it’s definitely not the one everyone would have expected from the massive Senegal player.