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.
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.
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.
It’s always intriguing to see which players data paints as similar. The defender most like Quansah according to Opta’s method of matching players is Chelsea’s Josh Acheampong. The rest of the top five are Josip Stanisic, Mario Hermoso, Guéla Doué and Sam Beukema. I won’t pretend to be familiar with most of them.
Quansah is Leverkusen’s most successful player when it comes to winning ground duels. He has been the victor in 63.3 per cent of the 79 he has contested, a near identical rate to how he has fared in duels in the air (64.0 per cent).
Only four other players in the Bundesliga with at least as much playing time are hitting at least 63.0 per cent for both brands of duel. It speaks to the challenges of the Premier League and the quality of Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté that they are both above that mark, the former comfortably so for both metrics.
Quansah’s main deficit (in relative terms) in ground duels largely comes via unsuccessful take-on attempts. His tackling has been imperious, having only been dribbled past once in 22 opposition attempts. That narrowly tops van Dijk’s one from 18 in percentage terms and comfortably betters Konaté’s seven out of 52.
Remember when it became a thing that Virgil hadn’t been dribbled past for ages? Maybe Quansah could be set for similar scrutiny.
Another of his strengths is that he is comfortable with the ball. This was noted by OptaFranz when Quansah was unveiled by Leverkusen:
Against the low blocks Liverpool face, any centre-back is going to see plenty of the ball. It’s what they then do with it that counts more.
According to MarkStats, Quansah has averaged 0.11 expected threat per 90 from passing in 2025/26. This slots him between Konaté (0.09) and van Dijk (0.12), which is also the case if we look at the same source’s ball progression metrics.
Jarrell and Ibou are near identical for the passing and carrying metrics, suggesting the younger man could replace the Frenchman in a possession sense without much fuss. Quansah topping the trio for progressive passes received doesn’t seem odd when you see him scoring goals like this.
He recorded his fastest sprint of the season in this match too, clocking a run at 35.08 kilometres per hour. Assuming the Bundesliga data is aligned with the Champions League numbers (which isn’t a given), that’s faster than anyone has managed in any European game the Reds have played this season.
Quansah’s 11.9 sprints per 90 are closer to Hugo Ekitike’s Champions League average (13.2) than Konaté (8.5) or van Dijk’s (6.4) too. The boy can run.
It helps explain why he’s in the 96th percentile of centre-backs in the top seven leagues for progressive carries on the DataMB model. As much as such player stats are about team tactics first and the league in which they play second, Quansah’s average carry (per Opta) is 11.2 metres, 1.1 above both of his former Liverpool colleagues.
His total of five shots or chances created following a carry of at least five metres is also more than van Dijk (three) and Konaté (one) have delivered between them. Is the Leverkusen centre-back more like Joël Matip than either of the Reds’ current central defensive lynchpins?
Adapting to the Premier League after prospering in the Bundesliga is not easy. Quansah’s impressive-looking metrics would likely decline as Florian Wirtz has proved this season. The centre-back at least has past experience that means nothing would be a surprise, not even the set piece sludge football. That should help him reacclimatise to professional life in England relatively easily.
All this said, I don’t think Quansah will be returning to Liverpool. He’s a regular starter for one of the top teams in Germany, so has no need to try his luck elsewhere. The Reds were also happy to let him leave less than one year ago (albeit we’ll never know how much that decision was influenced by their assumption they’d secure Guéhi).
One thing does seem certain, though. If there was no previous history there, Quansah looks to be the sort of centre-back that Liverpool would target.
Anybody think Liverpool should bring JQ home? Or definitely shouldn't?
This is a good topic to raise. It feels like Jarell is in the right place for his development. At 22/23, he'll get 30 starts in Buli + 11 in UCL (against some tough opponents). If Leverkusen can rally over the last 10 matchdays, he'll have the same opportunity to start in Buli/UCL at age 23/24. In summer 2027, we'll have a better idea of needs (do Virg & Ibou extend? how are Jeremy & Gio developing?). Summer 2027 is when the buyback is active & feels like the right time to assess his return.