At a club like Liverpool, it isn’t easy for young players to break through. There is a constant thirst from many to dip into the transfer market at every available opportunity and to buy in players whenever there is a gap in the squad. The good news for Jarell Quansah is that Jürgen Klopp isn’t one of those people, which is why the German chose not to buy a new defender in the summer of 2023. Instead, the Liverpool manager was happy to promote from within, knowing that he was better placed to bring a young player into the first team than buy a ‘make do’ defender from elsewhere.
The praise from Klopp, Virgil Van Dijk and Andy Robertson on Jarell Quansah tells you how highly thought of he is at the club.
Potential to save millions.
— 🅘 (@LFCApproved) September 21, 2023
After all, isn’t it better to work with someone who has been part of the Liverpool setup for a while and knows what is expected of them than to get in someone else and have to teach them every aspect of life at the football club. It was likely with this in mind that Klopp made the decision to bring Jarell Quansah into the first team setup for the 2023-2024 season, with the Warrington born player having been at the club from the age of five. Had Liverpool signed him from a Spanish club for £20 million, his performances would’ve earned rave reviews from those that put transfers above all else, but he did very well regardless.
Who Is Jarell Quansah?
Born in Warrington on the 29th of January 2003, Jarell Quansah was signed by Liverpool to their youth Academy when he was just five-years-old. He progressed through the ranks year-on-year, breaking into the Under-18s side during the 2019-2020 season. Despite being a centre-back by trade, he made his way into the Under-18s thanks to his ability to play as a right-back. It was this versatility that impressed, showing good comfort on the ball and excellent recovery pace. Not only did he show his talent with the Under-18s but also his leadership, captaining Marc Bridge-Wilkinson’s team several times.
The result of his steady progress and evident talent was that he signed his first professional contract with the club on the fourth of February 2021. A few months later and Quansah was the captain of the Liverpool side that took on Ipswich Town in the semi-final of the FA Youth Cup. He had already been the captain for wins over Manchester United, Leicester City and Arsenal in the preceding rounds, but he needed to dig deep in the first-half of the semi-final in order to keep the Reds in a game against an Ipswich side that were happy to play as underdogs and take the fight to them.
Within the first half an hour, Quansah proved his worth with two crucial blocks and showed exactly why Liverpool had offered him a three-and-a-half-year deal a few months before. He was already on Jürgen Klopp’s radar, with the manager having seen him play against Arsenal in the earlier round and also worked with him and some other Academy players when a group of them were invited to train with the first team earlier in the year. His youth manager, Bridge-Wilkinson, told The Athletic that he might well have gone under the radar a wee bit for those outside of the Liverpool bubble.
That, of course, would prove to be quite prophetic. Bridge-Wilkinson said, “First and foremost, he does things properly. He trains properly. He acts and he handles himself — around the building, on buses, wherever you are — in the right way. The example he sets for not just the group that we have but for the younger groups too. When they are in and around, he sets the example for everyone.” He also showed calm in the semi-final at 2-1, seeing the Reds over the line. Little wonder, therefore, that the youngster was made the Under-18s captain and caught the eye of the senior management team.
Ironically, it was Quansah’s defensive partner Billy Koumetio who struggled in the final, giving away a penalty and not doing enough to stop Aston Villa’s youth team from scoring twice in a 2-1 win. The irony being that Koumetio was the more experienced of the youth defenders at the time, having played in a Champions League dead rubber against Midtjylland the previous December. It was the first of two appearances that he managed, also getting onto the pitch for 46 minutes against Leicester City in a League Cup game during the 2021-2022 campaign, being taken off at half-time.
Breaking Into The First Team
Whilst Billy Koumetio was sent to Austria Vienna on loan at the start of the 2022-2023 season, being recalled when he struggled and was dropped to their reserve side, Quansah continued at Liverpool initially but was then sent on loan to Bristol Rovers for the second half of the campaign. He made 15 starts for the League One side, earning some good experience and learning the ins and outs of life at a lower league side. Any suggestions that he’d ‘found his level’ were misplaced, however. When the 32-man travelling party was confirmed for Liverpool’s training camp in Germany in July 2023, Quansah’s name was on the list.
Not only did he make the trip, but when the Reds played a friendly against Karlsruher SC, Quansah came on after 78 minutes as a replacement for Virgil van Dijk in a 4-2 win over the German side. It seemed as though Joey Barton’s prediction as Bristol Rovers manager, that he was destined for big things, might not have been too wide of the mark. Exactly the same substitution was made at precisely the same time when Liverpool played Greuther Furth a few days later, showing that Quansah was very much a part of the manager’s thinking even then.
Whilst many people were quick to suggest that the Reds should’ve gone into the transfer market for a defender during the summer window of 2023, the manager was content to stick with what he had available to him. As a result, it was Joel Matip that partnered Virgil van Dijk in central defence during the match against Newcastle United at the start of the 2023-2024 campaign, owing to the fact that Ibrahima Konaté was injured. When van Dijk was sent off after 23 minutes, Joe Gomez was thrown on to shore up the defence, meaning that Quansah was the last defender on the bench.
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Matip began to tire as the game went on, so Quansah got his first team debut after 77 minutes when he replaced the Cameroonian. He was calm and assured at the back, keeping Liverpool in the game for long enough to allow us to both equalise and take the lead through Darwin Núñez and emerge with all three points. When Trent Alexander-Arnold picked up an injury against Aston Villa just before the international break, there was a hope that he would be back in time for the game against Wolverhampton Wanderers when the break was over. That didn’t happen, however.
The manager could’ve rushed Konaté back into the fray, but instead he placed his faith in Quansah and asked him to partner Matip in the centre of defence, with Joe Gomez pushed out to right-back. The youngster played well, being the only one of the players to emerge from the first-half with any credit as the home side won it 1-0. He continued his strong performance in the second-half, helping to stop the score from getting any worse and looking calm and composed on the ball. In the end, the Reds ran out 3-1 winners and Quansah played his part in that before cramp forced him off after 83 minutes.
Quansah The International
Through his grandparents as well as his parents, Jarell Quansah is eligible to play for England, Scotland, Ghana and Barbados. It was England that he chose as a youth player, however, first appearing for the Three Lions at Under-16 level. He continued to play through the youth system, making it to the Under-19s. In June of 2022, he was selected to be part of the England Under-19s squad that took part in the Under-19s European Championship in Slovakia. He started all of England’s games at centre-back in the competition, playing a key role for the young squad.
Not only did he do well at the back to help the young Three Lions progress, he also scored the winning goal in a 2-1 win over Italy in the semi-final of the tournament. That set up a final against Israel, with Quansah getting an assist for Callum Doyle’s equaliser in the match that England went on to win 3-1 after extra-time. Such were the nature of his performances that he ended up being included in the UEFA Team of the Tournament. He was promoted to the Under-20s side, making his debut in a 2-0 win over Germany before being included in the squad for the Under-20s World Cup.
