Having only played two games for Liverpool so far this season, Jarell Quansah has admitted it has been “really tough mentally” but is in a “good environment” and “ready for anything.”
After a breakthrough season under Jurgen Klopp in which he played 33 times, Quansah has had to adapt to being less influential under Arne Slot.
The 21-year-old started the first game of the season away at Ipswich but was brought off at half time and replaced by Ibrahima Konate, who has since shown exceptional form.
The only match Quansah has played since the opening day was Liverpool’s 5-1 thrashing of West Ham in the League Cup third round.
He is now set to play in the fourth round also and, ahead of the match, spoke to Liverpoolfc.com about his time on the sidelines.
Asked about his work off the pitch, Quansah said: “People probably don’t see it. It’s really tough mentally when you’re not playing and obviously physically you’ve got to sort of train [like] how many metres you’d run in games and stuff like this.
“It’s really physically demanding and the amount of gym work you do, it’s really tough. But it’s all about staying ready and you never know when your opportunity will come. It’s just staying ready for anything.
“You’ve just got to look in front of you and say you’ve got two of the best centre-backs in the world ahead of you.
“It’s a joy watching them play, to be honest. But as long as I can try to push them as far as they can go, and they’re always pushing me to try to be a better player, it’ll breed a good environment around the squad.”
As alluded to above, Quansah holds no ill feelings towards those keeping him out of the team, Konate and Virgil van Dijk, instead seeing them as motivation.
“I’m not really a jealous person, it just shows me what I need to do to get there,” the young centre-half added.
“I’m always learning off them, even if I’m on the bench just watching them play, watching them train, just seeing what I can take from their game really. Hopefully I can be in a position to really fight for the spot.”
Quansah was then asked which of their attributes he is looking to put into his own game, to which he replied: “I could probably name a million things, to be honest.
“I think Virg is probably the most complete centre-half we’ve had in this modern era of centre-backs.
“And Ibou, the way he’s defending at the minute, his game has been well-rounded and really good. So I can just take everything from them.
“Obviously they’ve got experience as well, and I think that’s the most valuable thing, having the experience and the little tactical know-hows of certain strikers and the game. It’s always good to pick up on.”
While Quansah currently finds himself out of the team, there should be plenty of opportunity to get back into the starting XI this season with injuries and rotation inevitable.
His mentality seems perfect to reach the next level as a player Liverpool can hopefully rely on in the long term.
