Arne Slot made brutal dressing room decision but Liverpool boss knows reality of situation

It took barely 45 minutes for Arne Slot’s first decision of his Liverpool career to come under the microscope. Having struggled to exert their superior quality over an energetic and excitable Ipswich Town, in what was their first Premier League fixture for 22 years, Slot had seen enough by around 1.15pm on Saturday.

Jarell Quansah, it was deemed, was losing too many individual duels against the powerful and busy Liam Delap and while the statistics later confirmed the Reds centre-back had won four of his eight in the first half at Portman Road, that was clearly not a good enough percentage for the new boss.

In came Ibrahima Konate alongside Virgil van Dijk and the Reds eventually ground down their hosts, whose energy levels inevitably dipped. Slot’s team should have run out more comfortable winners on the day but a 2-0 victory was a good start for a new era.

Whether Slot had the foresight to know that explaining away his substitution as a fitness concern might have led to more intense questions of the club’s transfer policy - and specifically the wisdom of allowing Joe Gomez to explore his options - is unclear but the head coach stated the half-time change was in fact tactical.

”The first thing I said was that we don’t have to talk about tactics if you lose so many duels," Slot said. "And that’s what we did. Not that Jarell lost every duel - many of us lost too many duels - but I think we needed Konate to win these long balls through the air for the No. 9. That gave us control."

That honesty was hailed by Reds legend John Aldridge, who wrote in Monday’s ECHO column: “It would have been the easiest thing in the world for the boss to have explained the substitution away as a fitness issue but he has set the tone early by admitting he felt Quansah was losing too many duels on the day against Liam Delap. Look, Quansah is a young player who is going to have a brilliant career but off-days can happen and if the manager feels that is the case then it was refreshing to see him make that call.”

For Quansah, it’s been a well-documented rise of meteoric proportions in the last 12-18 months. From playing academy football to a loan spell with Joey Barton at Bristol Rovers, the centre-back had first-team stardom at Anfield thrust upon him due to a mix of injuries and suspensions. It’s easy to forget his maiden bow was only 12 months ago at Newcastle United and his senior debut was less than a year ago at Wolves.

Such was his development that he ended the campaign under Jurgen Klopp as first choice alongside the iconic Van Dijk, keeping out a World Cup finalist in Konate in the process.

Quansah's development in the last year or so has led to many at Liverpool to become convinced that he is now an England centre-back-in-waiting and the call-up from Gareth Southgate at the end of last season before his European Championship squad was rubber-stamped was vindication for the Warrington-born defender for snubbing repeated advances from Ghana, who he is eligible to play for through his grandfather.

Liverpool believe they have a future England star in their ranks in Quansah and as a result had no hesitation in rebuffing Newcastle United when they spoke about possibly taking him as part of what was essentially a swap deal involving Anthony Gordon in late June as the Magpies fought desperately to ease their Profit and Sustainability issues with the Premier League.

That being said, Konate could now be set for a run in the side once more having got himself back to 100% over the summer. It's three years now since he traded RB Leipzig for Liverpool and while the defender has yet to truly push on and become one of the outstanding young centre-backs in Europe as had been hoped, all the tools are there if a consistent, injury-free run arrives now this season.

Healthy competition for a club like Liverpool, though, is always needed and while Van Dijk may be long established as first choice and captain of the club, the opportunity to rest and rotate at the heart of the defence bodes well.

Sami Hyypia tells the ECHO: "I was a bit sad that Jarell didn't make the England squad because I think he is good enough and I think this season will be important for him as well. Last season, I don't know how many people expected him to perform at that level and it reminded me a little bit of when I joined Liverpool because nobody knew me.

"I had the chance to prepare myself for the season and there were no expectations so it was easy mentally to prepare myself. The second season was much tougher because I had a great first season and then the expectations that I had to match as well as my own.

"I think Jarell has a similar situation as last year and now he has his own expectations and people are expecting the same thing as last year but he has all the attributes to be a great centre-back and he reminds me of Virg.

"He is quick, comfortable on the ball, can dribble out of defence and he is strong, fast and good in the air. I don't know how many he scored at academy level but probably that is something to target to improve.

"I would expect that from Virgil too from corners, they are big guys. It's not easy because there are 20 players in the box, but obviously the main task is to keep the opposition away from the goal, so I am very happy in my career I had more clean sheets than goals."

It's interesting to note that only Tottenham Hotspur's Cristian Romero is above Konate in the list of 'comparable players' in Europe's top-five leagues according to scouting tool Fbref when assessing Quansah and there was not much to split the pair judging them on their respective 45 minutes at Ipswich.

Konate's passing accuracy of 93.3% was an improvement on Quansah's, which dipped just below the 90-mark, while the latter completed more tackles and interceptions, which owed a lot to how much more dominate the Reds were in the second period.

Both players had 35 touches each but 14 of those for the Frenchman came in the middle of the pitch compared to Quansah's seven, which again illustrated just how much more Slot's players were on the front foot after the break.

Eleven of Quansah's 35 touches were inside his own penalty area compared to just five for Konate, whose 22 carries outstripped his colleague's total of 16. Konate, meanwhile, won 75% of his aerial duels while Quansah's figure came in at 50%.

Slot's change might have become a talking point, but there wasn't much in the respective performances according to the numbers, with Konate benefitting from a much-improved display across the board from his team-mates.

The reality is that whoever Slot now selects at centre-half this season, the Reds have two number quality operators with their best years ahead of them in Konate and Quansah.