Liverpool have plenty of unanswered questions heading into the new season.
Will Bradley Barcola be signed?
Who will replace Curtis Jones in the squad if he leaves for Inter?
Who starts on the right side of the attack for the Reds?
Will Cody Gakpo be sold and if he is, who is being brought in to fill that void in the squad?
At the minute, all of these remain unanswered. However, following the pre-season win over Como on Sunday, two questions are no longer lingering.
What is a Jeremy Jacquet and will the young French centre-back start?
The 21-year-old agreed to move to Anfield this summer during the winter transfer window. Not long after that, he picked up a season-ending shoulder injury. He joined up with the team during pre-season but prior to the game against the Serie A team, his only cameos had been in the Inside Training videos published by the club.
He had zero minutes for the Reds and the arrival of Ronald Araujo on loan seemed to suggest the Frenchman might be managed carefully early on having not played since February.
However, that 45 minute cameo against Cesc Fabregas’ side changed everything. That isn’t meant to be an exaggeration either. Jacquet looked sharp. He’ll need to build stamina and fitness but most of the team will as they acclimatise to Iraola-ball.
It was telling that he was named in the stronger team of the day with Liverpool fielding a second string team against Como earlier on it the day. It was a nod at him likely retaining his place in the XI for the season opener against Newcastle.
When the deal was initially announced, I called him a unicorn centre-back and I meant it. Go long against him and in all likelihood, the ball is going back to where it came from. Try to out run him and he’ll catch you. Look to beat him in a one-vs-one and he’ll put those dangly legs to use and stop you. On the ball, he’s progressive. He can play long, short and carry.
He’s adept in wider areas having played as an outside centre-back in a three. He can cover space. He can control larger areas. He’s happy in these situations. Well, not happy but he doesn’t get flustered by it.
The biggest thing though was that he seemed to be fairly mature for a player of his age. Mistakes don’t cause a collapse. He seems to combine his physical freakish traits with great decision making.
He’s more Virgil van Dijk in that sense than Ibrahima Konate. And that’s not to heap extra pressure on him or belittle what Konate did with the Reds before he departed.
But one of the amber flags brought up when talking about Konate was that he never seemed to be the same player when Van Dijk wasn’t in the team alongside him. He never seemed to be able to take on the leadership role and command a backline. He always felt like someone who needed to be managed on the pitch. A bit like Dejan Lovren.
Whereas I’m yet to get that feeling with Jacquet. I watched a lot of his footage when he was at Rennes and he positioned himself in the right place at the right time. He doesn’t lose his head. He knows what to do and when. He’s just an assured centre-back with the potential to be one of the best in the world.
Even if he doesn’t develop to the peak of his powers, he’s still going to be a very good centre-back.
His first 45 minutes in a Liverpool shirt are a sign of things to come. Yes, he’ll have highs and lows but that showing against Como was a snapshot of him as a player. It was a snapshot of why the Reds signed off on a £60million deal for a then 20-year-old. He’s not just viewed as the future. He’s viewed as the now.
Right now, he needs time to familiarise himself with teammates. Skipper Van Dijk said as much: "I think [Jacquet] did well, same as Ronald. It's a start, a good start so hopefully he can crack on. [You build relationships] by playing games. I won't say it's the only way, but games are totally different than training.
"Jeremy's English is, I would say, a bit better than Ronald's but at the end of the day we are all pretty good footballers. We can see and smell some moments on how to defend certain situations.
"But it's pretty clear that you need to form a connection together and that takes a bit of time. In my opinion that's absolutely normal but hopefully we can get that going as quickly as possible."
The positive for the Reds though is that they now have one fewer question to answer. Fans know who Jacquet is now, they know he’s real and they know that if he’s fit, he’s likely the starting centre-back alongside Van Dijk.
In the space of 45 minutes, the defence went from being a worry to looking like one of the strongest areas of the team, well the centre-back pairing at least.
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