LEWIS STEELE: Jarell Quansah DOMINATED Erling Haaland in 1-1 draw with Man City
A Year ago on Monday, Jarell Quansah played for Bristol Rovers in a 3-1 win over Forest Green in front of 4,788 punters at the New Lawn. That day, the young defender was marking journeyman striker Amadou Bakayoko.
On Sunday, Quansah played for Liverpool, a team chasing four trophies including all of the top prizes in English football, against Pep Guardiola’s Treble-winning, serial champions Manchester City. He marked, and dominated it must be said, the world’s best No 9 Erling Haaland.
No disrespect to Bakayoko, who has had to fight for his footballing career after being born in Sierra Leone and worked hard to be a professional footballer, but this comparison just underlines the seismic leaps Quansah has taken in the last 12 months.
If you had told a Liverpool fan in August that they would be above Manchester City with 10 games to go having drawn with them amid a team featuring Quansah, No 2 goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher and rookie full back Conor Bradley, they probably would have laughed.
But Quansah’s development is no joke now. He might not get the headlines that some of Liverpool’s youngsters have received this season - probably because he’s a defender not an exciting attacking player like Jayden Danns or Bobby Clark - but he deserves every plaudit.
That was Quansah’s 23rd appearance of the season and ninth in the Premier League, a run which started at Newcastle in August when Virgil van Dijk was sent off in the first half and Klopp turned to the 21-year-old in his hour of need.
Quansah showed Klopp then that he could be trusted in pressure moments - Liverpool were 1-0 down for much of that game before somehow snatching a victory - but none so far have been bigger than getting the nod on Sunday against the champions.
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