Jarell Quansah stakes claim over Liverpool's £12m centre-back target after Fulham win

Jarell Quansah was in fine form as Liverpool got back to winnings ways over the weekend and his performance staked a claim for next season in the face of a transfer target that lined up against him for Fulham.

The Reds will see a new manager arrive and potentially another centre-back given that Joel Matip will most likely depart the club at the end of his deal after nine years at the club. It will leave whoever comes in with Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahim Konate, Joe Gomez and Quansah as their four senior players in that position.

Entrusted by Klopp, Quansah had played just 16 games of senior football when he was promoted to the squad at the start of the season. Despite that he proved very quickly that he could cut it at the top level and he has since gone on to play 29 times in all competitions and total over 2,000 minutes of action.

Whereas Fulham’s Tosin Adarabioyo is out of contract in the summer and has been linked with a move to Anfield. Physically speaking, the 26-year-old is almost the same dimensions as Matip and possesses a good level of ball-playing ability coupled with his dangerous aerial ability.

The £12m (€15.00m) valued centre-back has nearly 200 appearances across the Premier League and Championship but he came up short in a direct battle against Quansah. Granted, the Fulham defender faced a more dangerous threat than the Liverpool defender but we’ve decided to compare both player’s performances as they faced off in the same game.

While Quansah logically had more touches due to Liverpool having more possession (115 to 75) he completed 91% of his passes compared to Adarabioyo’s 75% but he did complete one key pass which is something the Liverpool defender didn’t do. Defensively, Quansah managed two clearances, two tackles, one blocked shot and one interception as well as winning both of his ground duels and 4/7 of his aerial duels while also not being dribbled past. Adarabioyo was under more pressure and made more clearances (5) but he was dribbled past twice, won 1/3 ground duels and lost possession six more times despite having the ball less.

Signing Adarabioyo would be a blow for Quansah’s minutes but he would certainly save the club plenty of money as their transfer targets at the back are likely to command huge fees.