Slot Praise for Jarell Quansah Following Nervy Liverpool Victory
Liverpool held on to a 2-1 victory over Wolves on Sunday, and manager Arne Slot praised the young defender for his part in that.
Last season, Jarell Quansah became Liverpool’s breakout youngster with the 22-year-old academy graduate ending the season in fine form and seen by many as a potential long-term successor to Virgil van Dijk in the heart of defence.
Starting out the 2024-25 season under new manage Arne Slot, though, Quasah struggled to match his form from the previous season and fell down the pecking order. But recent weeks have seen increased minutes and strong performances.
“I think everybody has seen recently and I see in training sessions that he is back to being the same Jarell as in pre-season,” Slot said following Sunday’s nervy 2-1 victory over Wolves that saw Quansah replace Ibrahima Konaté in the second half.
“I think that he had a bit of a hard time after being taken off at Ipswich [in the first game of the season] and then after that he was also in a bit of a struggle. He is just showing now what he has shown in the last months on the training pitch.
“He’s back to his old level and you can see how important he is. Again today you saw how vital players like Jarell and Wata [Wataru Endo] are. If you want to achieve something, you need these players that they bring up performances like this.”
With Liverpool under increasing pressure and Konaté on a yellow card, Quansah coming on to replace him while Endo was introduced to provide more steel in midfield saw Slot making a determined effort to preserve the Reds’ narrow advantage.
That it came just a few days after his side failed to do so against Everton, conceding an equaliser in stoppage time, showed both the value of players like Quansah and Endo as well as Slot’s own ability to quickly adjust and tweak his approach.
“I didn’t enjoy the last 20 to 25 minutes,” Slot added of Sunday’s match. “But as players, sometimes you have to fight. Sometimes as a manager you have to be pragmatic as well and understand it is maybe not our game in terms of football.
“Then we as a coaching staff have to be ready to make decisions that help the team in those moments. That’s what we tried. So it’s enjoyable [to win], but I prefer to see my team play one triangle after another leading to chance after chance.”
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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