- 9 hours ago
He won't arrive until the summer, but Liverpool have spent around £60m on wonderkid Jérémy Jacquet from Rennes. But with only a handful of senior games to his name, why has Arne Slot committed such a big sum of money to the player. Adam Clery looks at why he's considered one of the most exciting young players in the world right now, and what Liverpool need to do to help him realise his potential.
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00:00Right, hello everybody, welcome to the Adam Cleary Football Channel, and for everyone saying that nothing happened on transfer deadline
00:06day,
00:07well, you're wrong, aren't you? Because Jeremy Jacquet happened.
00:11Now granted, it won't actually happen until the summer, because it's only a pre-contract, so it does sort of
00:16feel like nothing happened, but still...
00:20Yes.
00:21Anyway, you don't spend 60 million beans on a 20-year-old, unless you're sure he's going to become one
00:26of the very best players in the world.
00:28So let's have a look at why Liverpool think that, and what they have to do to make it happen.
00:37All right, so as ever, this video is brought to you by our warm, loving data friends at FopMob,
00:42and we're going to be using several of their stats for him throughout the video, but they've also got, like,
00:46match-centers fixtures, all the really good stuff.
00:48So if you would like that on your phone, like I literally have, you can download it from the link
00:54in the description below.
00:55But oui, monsieur, Jeremy Jacquet, we're going to start with this one moment here,
01:01because I think in just this solitary second, it tells you exactly who he is.
01:07Now this comes from this season, right, in the game against Nantes, which, given the current political climate,
01:13I'm going to be very careful about how I pronounce, but we'll just circle Jacquet here, right,
01:18immediately notice the difference in the body language between him and the rest of the defence.
01:24All three of these are passive, they are reactive.
01:27These two are ready to drop off nearer to the goal, and the left-back is waiting to see if
01:31he needs to drop out wider to cover the runs in here.
01:34But Jacquet, no, no, no, no, no, I'll stop doing that in a second, not him, he is ready to
01:40pounce.
01:41He's on the front foot, he can see the pass is likely coming in to this player here,
01:45and if he's quick, he won't have to drop off or get right up his arse so he can't turn,
01:50he can get straight in and win the ball back at source.
01:53Which he does, he stops this attack before it even starts, and Wren are now on the attack going the
01:58other way themselves.
01:59And that, and moments like that, and the consistency of moments like that,
02:05are what a lot of teams believe make him such a special player who has the potential to go right
02:11to the very top of world football.
02:13Whether it's going in to win early balls like that, or stepping into passing lanes like this to intercept the
02:19ball before it gets into a dangerous area,
02:21he is already one of the best front foot defenders in world football at just 20 years of age.
02:28And when we say front foot, right, what we mean is proactive rather than reactive.
02:34He doesn't wait for situations to develop around him, he actively steps out of the defence to go and be
02:41combative.
02:42It's why he gets so many comparisons to William Saliba, because in that eternal all centre-backs are either a
02:49dog or a cat theory.
02:51You know the one, I mean, like dogs go chasing after the ball and cats just sort of sit there,
02:56wait, bide their time.
02:57That sort of thing.
02:58The duality of man, the meaning of life, all of that stuff.
03:02Jeremy Jacquet was considered one of the most exciting dogs we'd seen in absolutely years.
03:08Which yes, as a sentence, does not sound great, but when you actually sit and watch him,
03:13those movements are simultaneously so graceful, but also so explosive.
03:19His athletic profile is astonishing for his age.
03:23And last season you could see all this dog stuff in his clips, but it was also borne out in
03:28all of his numbers.
03:29He averaged more interceptions per 90 minutes than any defender in France last season,
03:33and more than any under-23 defender in the big five leagues across Europe.
03:38And like we said at the start, that ability to see things coming and either step in front of the
03:43player,
03:43or just into the passing lane, quite literally nobody was doing it like he was last season.
03:50Nearly in the top 10% for just the number of tackles in general, which is equally as impressive.
03:54But look at that one.
03:56Possession won in the final third of the pitch.
03:59The top end, top 5% of that.
04:02So like we said, he is proactive.
04:04He is front foot.
04:05He can see where that ball is going to be, and he just fucking goes and gets it.
04:10But crucially, those are last season's numbers.
04:14If we flip them to this season, and oh, hang on, now the interceptions fall off a cliff.
04:20The tackles are nowhere near as good.
04:22And don't get me wrong, those numbers are still really impressive for a 20-year-old.
04:27Like those are up against every other centre-back in that division.
04:31That would still impress me, but it's certainly not as impressive as the season before.
04:35So, what happened?
04:38Ah, well, mon ami, it's the last time I do that, I promise.
04:41He may be developing into one of the best front-footed young defenders in Europe.
04:45But he is also developing into one of the best ball-playing young defenders in Europe at exactly the same
04:53time.
04:54And Wren, this season, just entirely changed his role in the team to take advantage of that.
05:00And Wren play this 3-5-2 system, right?
05:03Almost always.
05:04And last season, when Jacquet broke into the team, he was playing exclusively as this right-sided centre-back,
05:10which, if we overlay his seasonal heat map, you can see was absolutely his bag.
05:15He was not wandering into the centre, but he was pushing up the field incredibly aggressively,
05:20both with the ball and to win it back.
05:23This looked, about six or seven months ago, just exactly who he is and exactly what he did.
05:28But this season, they decided he was simply too good to put out here.
05:32They've moved him to being the central centre-back, which, if we see the change in the heat maps,
05:37is absolutely enormous in terms of how he is playing the game.
05:42But it's not changing who he is.
05:44Moments like this, where he steps out aggressively, are still his trademark.
05:47But he is far more involved in the centre of the pitch.
05:50He is far more important to his team on the ball as he was off the ball last season.
05:55And don't get me wrong, he is still doing stuff like this, but he has far fewer on-ball engagements
06:01and, as a result, is a lot more effective when he does do them.
06:05He can now sit, he can hold possession, he can be more passive in his defending,
06:10if that's what he needs to be, instead of just cutting a boot, smashing into people all the time.
06:16And it's this dual profile he's developing which sets him apart from all the other
06:22prospectively brilliant young defenders currently on the continent.
06:25And what we've seen over the last few months is this emerging ability to protect his own team in possession.
06:31He is strong, he is composed when he's carrying the ball forwards.
06:35He protects it really well.
06:36He doesn't get caught out in the sort of situations you would expect his inexperience to become a problem in.
06:43And on top of that, he's showing a really promising range of passing,
06:46like a really high number of successful passes, really good numbers of successful long balls,
06:51and more chances created than virtually any other centre-back in the division, which is quite the stat.
06:58And you look at those passes as well, and this is just a random assortment of them here,
07:02and none of them look really eye-catching, none of them blow your head off.
07:06But when I was watching them, the thing that jumped out at me was the decision-making.
07:10They're all executed relatively well, but they're all the exact right pass to make,
07:16which is especially rare at his age.
07:19This one here, though, I do think is quite impressive.
07:20Like, the opposition have a lot of pressure on the ball.
07:23It's rolled back to him, so they don't lose it.
07:25And he's got, what, three players up in his grill here, closing him down?
07:29It would be very easy to just hit that blind in a panic,
07:32or, worse, smash it off one of them and lose the ball.
07:36But he doesn't do either of those things.
07:37He plays this really precise, side-footed pass into the channel
07:41where two Rennes players are in behind.
07:45And again, that's not some unbelievable bit of skill,
07:47but what it does mean is when all of this was going on in front of him,
07:50which can be quite daunting for a 20-year-old,
07:53he still assessed the situation there,
07:55but also saw what was going on further up the pitch.
07:59I found that pretty good.
08:01And just the more you watch him,
08:03the more you notice those little moments that make it look like
08:06he's got a lot more experience than he actually does.
08:09The guy has played, at the time of me recording this,
08:1231 senior games for Rennes, right?
08:15But he acts like he's got about 10 times that.
08:17And we're seeing improvements in other areas as well.
08:19Like, last season, there were big question marks
08:21over his ability in the air
08:22and his ability in the early phases of build-up.
08:25And you can see in the numbers,
08:26he's not getting a lot of touches.
08:28He's not winning a lot of headers.
08:30But again, with the position change to be more central,
08:32we are seeing both of those getting addressed.
08:35Now that he's in the middle,
08:36he's not up against wide players or getting targeted with aerial balls.
08:39He's directly up against forwards and beginning to assert himself.
08:43So that percentage is up.
08:45Likewise, the touches, they're not mind-blowing,
08:47but they are trending in the direction you would hope they would be for a 20-year-old.
08:52Like, Rennes play this 3-2-5,
08:53but they've actually taken to pushing him up into the midfield
08:56when they've got the ball.
08:57I'm absolutely going to mess this up, right?
08:59But he starts here as the central centre-back.
09:01And then when they've got possession,
09:03so a goalkeeper moves in, so it's a 3 there.
09:05Then he goes and sits in the pivot.
09:07And they sort of end up with like a 3-2-4-2 sort of thing going on.
09:14But either way, he ends up here
09:15rather than splitting the distance with the other centre-backs.
09:18And like you said before,
09:19it's not that he's insanely technical or anything,
09:21but that ability to protect the ball,
09:23to play long, accurate passes when they present themselves,
09:26and his insane recovery pace if things do go wrong
09:31means he's increasingly at home further up the field.
09:34Just this one final quick little thing, right?
09:37These are all of his defensive contributions in Ligue 1 this season, right?
09:42These are blocks, tackles, blah, blah, blah.
09:44There's fouls in there as well.
09:45So it's every time he's doing something vaguely defensive.
09:48And just look how far up the field those still manage to be,
09:54even though he's the central centre-back now.
09:56That is still, as well as being a great ball player and a great cat,
10:00that is just the most dog you will ever see.
10:03Now, quick caveat, right?
10:06This is all effusive, unreserved praise for Jeremy Jacquet, right?
10:10And I stand by every single word of it.
10:13But if you are a Liverpool fan, you must understand it comes with the context of he's 20.
10:20He still makes mistakes.
10:22His desire to go and get the ball can put both himself and his teammates in trouble.
10:26There are clear moments he displays of the inexperience he does have,
10:32even if he often makes it look like he doesn't.
10:34He got sent off at PSG this season because he's just not alive to the danger around him
10:39and swings a lazy leg at the ball and hacks Ramos down instead.
10:44And also, this 3-5-2 that he's played throughout his time at Rennes, right?
10:48He will not be playing that at Liverpool.
10:50So potentially that is a bit of an issue.
10:52But it's not like they've never played a back four.
10:56Like that clip from the very start of the video against Nantes, right?
11:00Dyson with death there.
11:01You can see it.
11:02That is a back four.
11:03So it's not like he's never played it.
11:04Plus, given the fact he's played in two different centre-back positions that are very different,
11:08and he's about as close to being, and I can never get this word right, ambipedal.
11:13Both-footed, as you can get, means adaptability is likely to be one of his traits in the coming years.
11:20And obviously, I do understand why a lot of Liverpool fans are like,
11:23well, if he's this good, then June.
11:26Are you joking?
11:27We need him in right now.
11:29We might not get into the Champions League.
11:30There was talk of playing Andy Robertson at centre-back a couple of weeks ago.
11:34But, at this stage of his career, the most important thing he can get right is comfortable minutes.
11:41And he is comfortable at Rennes.
11:43He is comfortable in this system.
11:44He is comfortable in this league.
11:46He is comfortable with his teammates.
11:47He will be six months so much better off as a result of leaving him there.
11:52And I wouldn't even be that surprised if, come next summer, there is talk of another loan for him.
12:00I think it depends very much on who at Liverpool is staying and who may potentially be arriving.
12:04But I would not be astonished to see him go back to France or somewhere like that next season.
12:09I think he's good enough to just plug in and just get on with it.
12:13But, I wouldn't rule it out.
12:14So, yes, that is Jeremy Jacquet or Claude the Coat.
12:23Felipe Fleece.
12:23I don't know.
12:24He sounds like a Bob Morton character.
12:25If you've enjoyed this video, please do let us know in the comments down below.
12:28And if you've seen him play at any point, anything else to add, please do get down there as well.
12:33I'm not the end-all-be-all.
12:34I like to read what other people think as well.
12:36You can get me across all the social medias at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
12:40And thanks again to our great pals at FOTMob for all of those wonderful stats that I would have no
12:44idea how to collate.
12:45So, I'm very glad that they do it.
12:47If you haven't already subscribed to us here at ACFC, please make sure you go and do that now.
12:51I've been saying like 200K has been coming up for like a month now.
12:55So, that's really starting to do my head.
12:56And so, if you wouldn't mind clicky-clicky, that would make me smiley-smiley.
13:00Yes, great player.
13:02What a buy.
13:02I just wish more had happened in January because I produce content on things like that for a living.
13:09So, yeah, it's not a victimless crime.
13:13Goodbye.
13:15Fine, honestly, sorry.
13:16I don't worry about it.
13:16I'm fine.
13:17I'm so fine.
13:18Thanks.
13:19Thanks, though.
13:20Bye.
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