Martin Skrtel has heaped praise on one young player at Liverpool who’s already shown that he can ‘compete’ at first-team level.
It was little more than six months ago that Jarell Quansah made his senior debut for the Reds in their 2-1 win at Newcastle, but the defender has already gone on to play 21 times under Jurgen Klopp so far this season (Transfermarkt).
Speaking to The Athletic, the former LFC centre-back took a shine to the 21-year-old after watching him in pre-season training last summer and believes that he can now be trusted at a high level.
Skrtel said: “I watched Jarell train last summer and really liked him. You don’t need to be worried when you put him into the team alongside either Virgil [van Dijk] or [Ibrahima] Konate. He can play, he can compete, he’s already faced some of the toughest strikers around.
“You look at his quality and his confidence at such a young age. I don’t want to say he could play every game, but you could certainly count on him as the third-choice centre-back.
“For him to learn playing next to Virgil is a massive advantage for him. Virgil shows him the way to play and that will really help with the next stage of his career.”
Like several youngsters at Liverpool this season, Quansah has shown remarkable maturity to step up from the underage ranks to the first team and make one of the biggest jumps in football look rather straightforward.
Tidy in possession and a beast in the air, the 21-year-old has won three aerial duels per game and boasts a passing success rate of 88.2% in the Premier League this term, ranking him third in the Reds’ squad for both metrics among players to have started in the top flight (WhoScored).
He also has an excellent reading of the game for such a young player, with his tackling success rate of 80% the second-highest at Anfield during 2023/24 so far (FBref).
It’s certainly helped that Quansah has had a world-class operator in Van Dijk from whom to learn, but he deserves plenty of credit for how quickly and commendably he’s adapted to senior football over the past six months.
He’s already at a stage where his inclusion in a starting XI exudes confidence rather than trepidation from Liverpool fans.