Arne Slot believes Jarell Quansah is now “back to his old level” after months of hard work in training, speaking after a “vital” display in the 2-1 win over Wolves.
Quansah, in only his second season with the first team, has found himself under question this time out, beginning with his half-time substitution against Ipswich in August.
Having kicked off the campaign as a starter the 22-year-old has now started just 10 times in 2024/25 with only two of those in the Premier League.
But he has been strong when called upon of late, including as a half-time replacement for Ibrahima Konate on Sunday that saw him produce a crucial block to deny Wolves an equaliser in a 2-1 victory.
In his post-match press conference, Slot was asked about Quansah’s recent revival and expressed his delight that he is now translating his form to the pitch.
“I think all the boys showed great character, great mentality in the second half,” the head coach said.
“But I think everybody has seen recently already – because he’s played a few games recently – that he did really well.
“I see in training sessions that he’s back to being the same Jarell as he was in pre-season.
“I think he had a bit of a hard time after being taken off at Ipswich, and then the first two or three games after that when he came in he was also in a bit of a struggle.
“But he’s just showing now what he’s shown in the last two or three months, on the training pitch but also when he comes in, that he’s back to his old level.
“Then you can see how important he is. Again you saw today how vital players like Jarell and Wata also are for this team.
“Because if you want to achieve something of course you need the goals from Mo or from Lucho or from all he others, but you also need these players that if you depend on them that they bring up performances like this.”
Per FotMob, Quansah completed all 30 of his attempted passes after coming on against Wolves for a rare 100 percent accuracy, as well as making the second-most tackles of any Liverpool player (two) and more defensive actions than Konate (five to four).
While Konate is undoubtedly first choice at this stage it is heartening to see Quansah’s confidence improve along with his performance levels – clearly, it was never in doubt among Slot’s staff.
