Arne Slot has praised Jarell Quansah for his performance off the bench in Liverpool’s narrow win over Wolverhampton Wanderers. Goals from Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah gave the Reds a 2-0 lead at the break, but Matheus Cunha’s curling strike halved the deficit midway through the second half to set up a nervy finish at Anfield.

Quansah was brought on at half-time in place of Ibrahima Konate with Slot admitting he made such a decision to avoid the France international from being sent off after already being issued with a yellow card in the first half.

Having broken into the Liverpool first team under former manager Jurgen Klopp last season, Quansah has found his game-time limited this year under Slot.

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But the 22-year-old, who scored the final goal of the Klopp era against Wolves at Anfield last May, impressed off the bench against the West Midlands outfit as he was handed only his sixth Premier League outing of the campaign.

Quansah caught the eye with one vital interception in particular, cutting out Tommy Doyle’s low cross into the six-yard box to deny Wolves what looked to be an almost certain equaliser.

And while Slot admitted the 22-year-old initially struggled earlier in the season after being taken off at half-time on the opening day away at Ipswich Town, he believes the defender is now back to his best.

“I think all the boys showed great character, great mentality in the second half,” the Reds head coach said. “But I think everyone has seen recently already, because he (Quansah) played a few games recently that he did really well, and I see in training sessions that he is back to being the same Jarell as he was in pre-season.

“I think he had a bit of a hard time after being taken off at Ipswich and then the next two or three games, after that when he came in, he was also in a bit of a struggle.

“But he is just showing now what he has shown in the last two or three months on the training pitch but also when he comes in that he is back to his old level.

“And then you can see how important he is again. Today you saw how vital players like Jarell and Watu (Endo) also are for this team.

“If you want to achieve something of course you need goals from Mo or Lucho or all the others. But you also need these players that if you depend on them, that they bring a performance like this.”