# Liverpool’s Jarell Quansah out of position but back in favour with Slot

A few millimetres to the right and Jarell Quansah would now be acclaimed for heading Liverpool into the Champions League quarter-finals and, according to Luis Enrique’s prediction for the winner of an outstanding last-16 tie , onwards to Munich. Fine margins ensured the defender’s wait to make his mark under Arne Slot moves on to Wembley.

Barring an unexpected selection decision from the Liverpool head coach on Sunday Quansah will start as an emergency right-back in the  final against Newcastle. Trent Alexander-Arnold is set to miss out with an ankle injury sustained against PSG on Tuesday, the second choice, Conor Bradley, remains sidelined with a hamstring problem and Slot’s third option, Joe Gomez, will not return from his own hamstring issue until the final weeks of the season. In many respects it is the opportunity Quansah has been longing for since the opening weekend of the season. Here it is, with the second League Cup winners’ medal of his young career at stake. The duel between the reinforcements, with Harvey Barnes likely to replace the suspended Anthony Gordon on Newcastle’s left flank, could prove significant.

Liverpool may not be in the mood to dwell on positives from their performance against Luis Enrique’s slick and more resilient version of PSG, even if a penalty shootout is what ultimately separated an exhilarating contest between two of the best teams in Europe. But the central defender’s adaptation to an unaccustomed full-back role after his 73rd-minute introduction to a game of the highest quality was one. Not that the loss of Alexander-Arnold can be portrayed as anything but a setback for  as they attempt to lift the gloom of their Champions League elimination by claiming the first trophy of the Slot era.

Alexander-Arnold’s influence was growing at Anfield when he launched himself into a touchline challenge on Vitinha and turned an ankle. Concerns his departure would stymie Liverpool’s threat from right-back and enable Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to dominate from PSG’s left were allayed by the performance of the 22-year-old from Warrington. Quansah twice went close to heading Liverpool level on the night and back in front on aggregate, agonisingly so on the second occasion when his diving header beat Gianluigi Donnarumma but bounced away off the inside of the goalkeeper’s post. Quansah would have joined Harvey Elliott in achieving unlikely hero status against the French champions had that gone in.

Defensively, Quansah was focused, alert and front-footed against the gifted Georgian and the equally impressive Désiré Doué when the PSG forwards switched. One sliding interception, having read Vitinha’s intentions perfectly, flipped a promising PSG opening into another Liverpool counterattack but Slot’s forwards failed to capitalise. The England Under-21 international established a benchmark in the second leg that Slot will want to see repeated at Wembley.



Jarell Quansah (left) was substituted at half-time against Ipswich in Liverpool’s first Premier League game of the season. Photograph: Bradley Collyer/PA

Liverpool showed their faith in Quansah’s talent and long-term future in October by awarding him a new, improved contract only 17 months after his previous deal. It was reward for a fine breakthrough season in Jürgen Klopp’s final campaign in charge that brought 33 appearances, including a substitute’s contribution to the Carabao Cup . Winning Slot’s trust has been more of a battle, however, with the defender given a few punishing, public lessons in what the head coach expects.

There was his half-time substitution in Slot’s first Premier League game in charge . Liverpool’s new head coach was unhappy with the amount of duels his entire team lost in the first half at Portman Road but it was Quansah who paid the price and was taken off early. His hold on the centre-back position alongside Virgil van Dijk disappeared in that moment. Ibrahima Konaté replaced him for the second half, helped spark an immediate improvement, and went on to establish a commanding partnership with Van Dijk that could not be dislodged.

“The next day he pulled me in,” Quansah later said of Slot’s substitution. “He went through his mindset and why he made the decision. I think the reasons he gave me were fair enough. It’s better it happened now than at any other point in the season. It gives me a bit of a kick up the backside, you could say.”

Patience has been required to wait for an opportunity behind one of the strongest centre-back pairings in the Premier League this season. Quansah’s 21 appearances under Slot have included 10 starts, two of them in the top flight. His next opportunity should come alongside Konaté and Van Dijk at Wembley. On the brief evidence of Tuesday night against PSG, Quansah is determined to seize it.
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