The Quansah Question

Should Liverpool exercise the buyback option they hold for their former central defender?

Liverpool are rumoured to be interested in activating the buyback clause they included in the deal that saw Jarell Quansah move to Bayer Leverkusen last summer. Wherever the truth lies in that story, it’s an interesting prospect.

The 23-year-old fits into a theory that came to mind when the Reds signed Jérémy Jacquet, namely that the club might be moving towards a system with three central defenders.

Jérémy Jacquet Points Towards a Back Three

To briefly recap: Rennes use that formation, as did Parma during Giovanni Leoni’s time there. Liverpool almost plucked Marc Guéhi out of Crystal Palace’s back three during the transfer window in which they signed a wing-back called Jeremie Frimpong. They’re now being linked with a Leverkusen defender who has started every game this season bar three in a 3-4-3 system.

It would be easy to assume there’s no chance of Quansah returning. He was frozen out by Arne Slot after he infamously substituted the youngster at half time in his first match in charge. Yet that major omission of popular perception didn’t really happen. Liverpool played 56 matches in all competitions in 2024/25 and the only man who was in the match day squad for every single one was Jarell Quansah.

He played 1298 minutes across the campaign; not loads of pitch time, perhaps, but not nothing. It was over 400 minutes more than the likes of Federico Chiesa, Harvey Elliott, Wataru Endō and Joe Gomez managed, about 90 fewer than Conor Bradley.

What would Slot have given for a consistently available player who can play in the centre of the defence or at right-back this season? From when he made his debut at Newcastle in August 2023 to the day he left the club, Quansah didn’t have a single reported injury that caused him to miss a game.

Quansah’s career injury history, per Flashscore

He’s only missed a week of action so far this season, with Leverkusen conceding 10 goals in two games in his absence (not that the 7-2 loss to Paris Saint-Germain is likely to have been wildly different had he played). Their goal difference has been 0.20 per 90 minutes better when Quansah has played compared with when he hasn’t, for whatever that is worth.

There have been conflicting reports regarding when the buyback clause in his contract can be activated. The fee seems to fluctuate too. Both CIES Football Observatory and Transfermarkt rate Quansah as Leverkusen’s most valuable player, they’re just the small matter of €30.8M apart in what they perceive that value to be.

We don’t have to worry about that. What concerns us whether it would make sense for the Reds to exercise their right to reclaim their former centre-back. Quansah’s data makes a decent fist of selling the case that they should.