Jurgen Klopp has heaped praise on 20-year-old Jarell Quansah after a Man of the Match display in “outrageous” conditions at Bournemouth.
The young centre-back made his seventh appearance of the season in the League Cup clash on the south coast, and despite sideways rain in brutal conditions, he shone the brightest.
The weather was not conducive to perfect football, but Quansah ended the match with an 89 percent passing accuracy and 114 touches – the highest of any player on the pitch.
And his performance was not lost on his manager, who was left saying “wow” after what he deemed to be a Man of the Match performance – and few would disagree!
“Was he the man of the match? [He was] mine,” Klopp said post-match. “A really good game, wow. He loved it.
“I told him now, he was really over the moon about the game. He was concentrated, strong in the tackles, reading the game super well.
“We gave him the ball a lot, he had to do a lot with the ball.
He added, laughing: “Caoimh was like, ‘give it to him, let’s have a look at what he can do!’. One or two difficult situations but that’s normal, a really, really good game.”
The performance was made all the more impressive due to the “outrageous” conditions, which saw the ball move backwards with any long ball from Caoimhin Kelleher in the second half.
“Two different halves, obviously we should have score more in the first half when the wind was with us,” Klopp said. “When it was against us you could see that immediately, it made a massive difference.
“The boys fought really hard but it was brutal. On the bench it was bad, two yards in front of the bench it was really bad, one-yard on the pitch it was outrageous.
“We loved the game, it’s the cup and it’s just about getting through. The boys are really happy.”
Fan Comments