The injury problems that have too often dogged the centre-back during his Anfield career meant this was the first time he had even started nine Premier League games in a row.
Konate, though, didn’t finish the game having been replaced during the interval after sustaining an arm injury when inadvertently stood on by Virgil van Dijk.
Using his shirt as a makeshift sling, the France international didn’t look in a good way. But even before his departure, Liverpool’s backline had been spooked with a post-Hallowe’en horror show of a display.
The spark for change was Joe Gomez, a player close to leaving for Newcastle United in the summer and who couldn’t even make the bench at the start of the season.
Rather than mope, Gomez waited for his opportunity. And here it was grasped in excellent fashion, the centre-back snapping into tackles, making interceptions and providing cover to help Trent Alexander-Arnold improve after a torrid first half at right-back.
And it was his header at Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen minutes after being introduced that roused that Anfield crowd for a second-half atmosphere visiting boss Fabian Hurzeler admits his team couldn’t handle.
Should Konate be sidelined for any period of time, Gomez is ready.
Tsimikas gives Slot headache
The competition for places in this Liverpool team is rarely more fierce than on the left flank. And that battle continues to prove of benefit to Arne Slot.
Cody Gakpo was given the nod on the attacking side of the flank and, while his equaliser owed as much to fortune as intent, it was merited for his unstinting efforts, particularly during the first half in which he was one of the few Liverpool players willing to keep running at the Brighton defence.
The Holland international ended the game as the central striker with Luis Diaz introduced for the again hard-working Darwin Nunez, the Colombian playing a key part in Mohamed Salah’s winner and important in helping Liverpool move the ball upfield as Brighton cranked up the pressure late on.
In the left-back role, Kostas Tsimikas justified only his second Premier League start of the season with an all-action display in which a couple of strong challenges provided much-needed inspiration for not only the crowd but his team-mates also.
Slot had spoken before the game of the issues with which Andy Robertson is having to overcome at present. And while confident the Scotland international will soon be back to his best, Slot will also know Tsimikas is giving him a welcome selection headache.
Slot finds answer
Roman’s ‘comfortable and cosy’ £38 dress in the ‘colour of the season’
So continues Arne Slot’s remarkable start as Liverpool head coach, this win number 13 from 15 games in charge.
This, though, was another landmark in his fledgling reign, the first time in the Premier League his team had come from behind to earn a victory.
While the opponent was hugely contrasting, the challenge in the second half was similar to that faced against Nottingham Forest – and how that result can now be put into context – back in September. Frustrated that afternoon, this time Liverpool were patient in finding the answer. They are learning.
Having beaten Brighton in the League Cup less than 72 hours earlier, this was the 12th occasion during the Premier League era the Reds had played the same team twice in different competitions in the same week, but the first time since 1995 they had won both games.
Bayer Leverkusen and the returning Xabi Alonso are up next in the Champions League on Tuesday. But that there will be no lament at what might have been over the Spaniard standing in the away dugout says much about how Reds supporters are now fully invested in the Slot era.
