Jurgen Klopp reaped rewards of Liverpool gamble to contain Cristiano Ronaldo

With Mohamed Salah taking centre stage for Liverpool yet again, it would be easy to forget the quality of the Reds' defensive display in their triumphant victory at Manchester United.

Jurgen Klopp has the best player in the world firing on all cylinders in attack, but he also has a star-studded defensive line without which Salah's goals would be futile.

Liverpool have only conceded in three of their nine Premier League games this season and they, like title rivals Chelsea and Manchester City, have an impressive defensive record to complement their top flight-leading 27 goals scored.

Klopp has turned to Joel Matip to partner the undroppable Virgil van Dijk in seven of those nine fixtures, while the Cameroonian has also played 90 minutes in all three Champions League clashes so far.

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Jurgen Klopp chose to start Ibrahima Konate over Joel Matip against a Cristiano Ronaldo-led attack

Matip is a classy and reliable operator who has rarely put a foot wrong since his arrival on a free transfer from Schalke back in 2016.

However, the 30-year-old has been plagued by injuries throughout his time at Anfield and Klopp is loath to put him at risk by playing him in every game of the hectic fixture schedule.

The German's solution ahead of the trip to Old Trafford was to hand Ibrahima Konate his second Premier League start - a baptism of fire against the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford.

Konate arrived from RB Leipzig for £35million this summer and kept clean sheets against Crystal Palace in the top flight and Norwich City in the Carabao Cup in his first two appearances.

The Red Devils posed by far his biggest test yet, but he rose to the challenge seamlessly to maintain his unblemished record in a Liverpool shirt.

The 22-year-old had an impressive pass accuracy of 92 per cent, won four of five duels and made eight clearances. The closest United came to getting on the scoresheet was Ronaldo's second-half consolation goal which was subsequently ruled out for offside.

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Klopp will have been delighted with Konate's performance after hailing him for "training on the highest level" in recent sessions ahead of kick-off.

The Frenchman's composed display against one of the best strikers in the world proved Liverpool have great strength and depth in defence to match the quality of their star-studded attack.

Konate will be hoping to make it four clean sheets in four games if he gets the nod for the Carabao Cup trip to Preston North End on Wednesday.