Jarell Quansah has played the most of anyone with a 100% Premier League win record this season. No wonder he has “surprised” Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool.
Twenty-four players have a perfect record in the Premier League so far this season. Among that number is a few who have featured for a single minute – your Michael Ndiwenis, your Ben Johnsons, your James Tomkins’ – and only a handful who have actually started a match.
The 262 minutes played by Jarell Quansah might not sound particularly substantial, but they are the most of any player who has won on each of their appearances. And after the least routine of 2-0 victories over Burnley, the goal scored by Wolves striker Hee-chan Hwang in mid-September remains the only one Liverpool have conceded in the league with Quansah on the pitch.
His emergence has been timed gloriously. After staring at the tactics board of Joey Barton for half a season on loan at Bristol Rovers – to be fair, Quansah does seem to have taken ‘goalmouth action (none in ours) (loads in theirs)’ entirely on board – the centre-half has returned as a possible answer to Jurgen Klopp’s central defensive prayers.
Jurgen Klopp celebrates Liverpool’s win at Burnley.
Liverpool have signed three centre-halves in the last eight transfer windows, and while Ibrahima Konate has fared slightly better than Ben Davies and Ozan Kabak, the Frenchman has developed the sort of frustrating fragility which has slightly stunted Joel Matip’s Anfield career.
Phenomenal as Konate was against Arsenal, the quick turnaround in terms of fixtures meant Quansah was needed to step in at Turf Moor alongside Virgil van Dijk as one of five changes. But as the 20-year-old’s ruthless response to Matip’s season-ending injury showed recently, he is ready for the challenge.
“Obviously it’s a shame what happened to Joel and my condolences go to him,” Quansah said earlier this month, “but my idea was to try and get over him anyway and try and be a starting centre-back in the Premier League. I’m just trying to push on and be the best centre-back I can be.”
That single-minded mission continued in impressive fashion, albeit against a side Klopp had bang to rights in the build-up. “I think Burnley could have easily had much more points because they had so many good spells in the games where they then don’t finish these situations off,” he noted, before the Clarets showed some lovely approach play on Boxing Day, summed up by none of their nine shots being on target.
If one excellent tackle to prevent Zeki Amdouni from breaking into the box was not enough, then winning the most aerial duels of any player at Turf Moor underlined just how quickly Quansah has acclimatised to this level. A diet of Europa League and League Cup minutes has fortified the defender’s gut for these matches – even if Burnley away in the December cold is not quite the obstacle it once was.
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Vincent Kompany’s side have lost all but one of their 10 home league games, conceding 24 goals in the process, the 5-0 thrashing of Sheffield United a true outlier in every sense. They were officially undone by a sublime Darwin Nunez finish and clinical strike from the returning Diogo Jota, but Mo Salah hitting the crossbar and curiously disallowed goals from Cody Gakpo and Harvey Elliott removed the scoreline’s sheen.
Without James Trafford and with Liverpool in a more prolific mood, this would not have been pretty. There is a point at which Kompany’s philosophy – at least when deployed with these particular players – becomes more obtuse than admirable, and far too often Burnley fall on the wrong side of that fine line, refusing to countenance much more than patiently passing the ball out from defence.
Liverpool relished the opportunity to press high and frequently but it was Quansah leading by example at the back with a performance belying his years. Klopp professed to being “surprised” by his progress this season and after the win, Van Dijk hailed the heir to his defensive throne as “a fantastic talent” who he will strive to “help” bring through.
After the prophetic call not to loan Quansah out again last summer, Klopp dismissing any idea of signing another centre-half in January has emphasised his effortless evolution to the first team. Liverpool have a gem on their hands.
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