Jarrell Quansah is Ready for the Season
But are we ready to see him jump the queue?
Jarell Quansah turned 21 at the start of this year, and has quietly gone from “fill-in centerback from the Academy” to “very likely partner to Virgil Van Dijk.” He played the full 90 against Sevilla on Sunday, and though this friendly was certainly not a cut-and-dry “these will start the opener,” you’re always likely to see stability and continuity preferred in a back five versus elsewhere on the pitch.
Quansah started filling in when there were injuries or injury concerns, but he’s poised to enter the 2024/25 season as an outright first choice option to partner Van Dijk — and though some of the reasoning will have to do with consistency of fitness, much of it will have to do with style of play.
There is a battle at centerback for Liverpool, as the Reds find themselves somewhere between “needing more options at the center of defense” and “having a settled line-up.” Ibrahima Konaté has a lot of upsides but some downsides remain; Joe Gomez might challenge the pecking order but equally might leave the club — he’s a hard one to call.
In the meantime, Quansah is emerging with relatively little fanfare despite being a “local lad” by default (a bit because Warrington exists on the Merseyside side of the M62, but mostly because there’s no other big clubs in that swathe of space).
The young centerback is not yet perfect, but his upsides — especially poise under pressure — suggest that a large part of what he’s lacking will come with time, and may be a bit intangible; the more he stands out stood next to Van Dijk, the more he’ll enter matches with his own swagger and intimidation factor. In other words, he mostly lacks experience, and this season might well give that to him.
Playing on that side of Liverpool’s defense has been a challenging ask, as it’s the glaring area to target for opposition: it boasts the real estate left by Trent Alexander-Arnold’s Jürgen Klopp-prescribed role being farther up the pitch than a classic right back as well as the desirability lent from “not being the side Virgil Van Dijk plays his football on.” Of course, this itself is open to uncertainties, as Arne Slot’s Liverpool will look a bit different to his predecessor’s, and while we can’t draw conclusions yet, the fullbacks look to be the most changed in the team’s shape in possession. Quansah may find himself gaining experience in a role slightly less risky than it has been in the past, though of course this is an early one to call.
Quansah spoke to Liverpoolfc.com after the weekend’s friendly, and reflected on what the pre-season activities mean for the season ahead:
“That’s what pre-season is for: building performance, getting fitness. I think everyone feels quite sharp now and we’re ready to attack the season.
“I hope it [the win over Sevilla] was a good show for the returning crowd. That’s what we wanted to show, we wanted to show the hard work we have put in during the past four or five weeks. Yeah, good to get a 4-1 win in.
“I think the style of play the manager likes to play is very attractive, we can score some unbelievable goals. And it will get better and better hopefully. That’s what we’re striving for.”
The team is still working out what Slot expects of them, with the plans becoming clearer as they move forward, per Quansah:
“It’s always going to be [like that], it’s not going to click straight away.
“He’s got a lot of new ideas that we have to get used to. Obviously a lot of the lads have played under the last manager for quite a while, so it’s a lot of adaptation.
“But it’ll come slowly but surely. There’s still a lot of work to be done on the training pitch and we’ll continue to do that.”
A central focus for the team going forward will be solidifying a defense that was a bit leaky last season, even if this leakiness didn’t always hurt them:
“We’ve just got to keep building. Obviously the unit is still coming back together and we’ve not had many minutes together,” Quansah said.
“We’re still adapting to a different playing style and things like that. I think the clean sheets will come and I think we need to prioritise that this season.
“There were too many games last season where we conceded cheap goals, and we can’t really start games going down, it’s not what you need when you’re pushing for titles. To set the foundations and keep clean sheets is how you win leagues.”
There are a lot of uncertainties ahead as fans and players alike get a sense of what Slot’s Liverpool will look like — but one thing that seems almost certain is that we will be seeing a good amount of Jarell Quansah as we do so.
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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