With a deal for Marc Guehi having collapsed at the final hour a year ago, Liverpool paid the price last season for the lack of depth at centre-back.
Let’s face it, Ibrahima Konate was a liability at times, with Jamie Carragher putting it best when stating in April that the Frenchman almost “makes a mistake every game”.
Thankfully, the Reds’ patience, or rather suffering, has paid off since then, with young Jeremy Jacquet already looking like a class above, both for club and country.
Why Jacquet is earning rave reviews after France displays
Writing after France’s latest clash with Italy, talent scout Jacek Kulig put it best on X when suggesting that Liverpool have “hit the jackpot” with the signing of Jacquet.
£60m was a handsome sum to pay back in January, yet as Kulig put it, the 21-year-old already looks like a “world-class centre-back in the making”.
That was evident on Friday night against Roberto Mancini’s men, with Jacquet looking a class above even amid the red card for centre-back colleague, Dayot Upamecano.
Remarkably, the former Rennes starlet recorded a 100% pass accuracy in that 1-1 draw, despite making 79 passes in total, losing the ball just once all evening.
His defensive nous had also come to the fore against Belgium earlier in the week, winning six of his nine total duels, while making seven defensive contributions in total.
He’s a gem of a player, alright, with such quality having been seen in the early weeks of the season too.
Jacquet’s fine start to life at Liverpool in numbers
It is already evident that Liverpool are reaping the rewards of their defensive reinforcements, with Ronald Araujo and Jacquet bringing a real sense of calm to the backline thus far.
In five starts, Jacquet has already helped to keep five clean sheets in the Premier League, the joint-best record for that metric of any team in the division.
It’s an easy comparison to make, yet there is a young Virgil van Dijk feel to the Frenchman’s game, as seen in the fact that he’s been dribbled past just 0.2 times per game.
Who can forget his remarkable recovery pace and strength to shrug off Omar Marmoush in the recent Carabao Cup clash against Tottenham Hotspur, with Jacquet providing a real sense of calm off the bench.
Liverpool have had to wait six months to see him in action, after initially striking a deal over the winter, but on current evidence, he looks more than worth the wait.
|
Jacquet – 26/27 Stats |
|
|---|---|
|
Stat (*per game) |
Record |
|
Games |
5 |
|
Goals & Assists |
0 |
|
Pass accuracy* |
90% |
|
Key passes* |
0.6 |
|
Total duels won* |
5.8 |
|
Aerial duels won* |
2.0 |
|
Tackles* |
2.2 |
|
Interceptions* |
1.6 |
|
Dribbled past* |
0.2 |
|
Recoveries* |
4.2 |
He’s certainly in the running to be Liverpool’s standout player of the season so far, although he might just be edged out in that regard.
Why Jacquet isn’t Liverpool’s ‘player of the season’
Iraola, a man who last tasted defeat in the Premier League back in January, has enjoyed an unbeaten start to life at Anfield, with the Reds having been solid, if not unspectacular, so far under the Spaniard.
They’ve ground out results to a degree, although that is to be expected so soon into his managerial tenure, with the likes of Bradley Barcola still needing time to bed in.
Hopefully the Frenchman will click into gear soon enough, and he may well have to if Cody Gakpo is sidelined for a period, the Dutchman’s injury status currently unknown.
Having at one stage looked set to join either Spurs or Manchester City over the summer, Gakpo has arguably proven Iraola’s best attacker so far this term, if not his key man in general.
In the view of The Athletic’s Duncan Alexander, speaking on the Totally Football Show, the 27-year-old has been Liverpool’s “player of the season“, hence why his injury setback is of concern.
The polarising forward had struck late on to deny former boss Jurgen Klopp the win in Germany’s clash with the Netherlands, yet he has since pulled out of the Oranje squad due to an ankle issue.
Liverpool face an anxious wait to see how long Gakpo will be sidelined for, the £40m signing proving such a central figure for the club in the early weeks of the campaign.
Indeed, it was Gakpo who got the Reds off the mark against Newcastle United, before supplying a sublime, whipped assist for Alexander Isak against Nottingham Forest.
The former PSV Eindhoven man again combined with the Swede on two occasions at Ipswich Town, his second assist of the night coming courtesy of an outrageous trivela pass.
He also got in on the act himself against Spurs in the cup, rifling in in trademark fashion on a night that ended with him wearing the captain’s armband.
That alone was a statement of his growing status in this squad, with the Reds left thankful that the likes of City weren’t able to prise him from Anfield this summer.
Of course, Jacquet’s instant impact has been a joy to behold, yet Liverpool and Iraola would be nowhere without Gakpo’s stellar end product.
