Liverpool’s New Rock: Jeremie Jacquet Shines in Konate’s Absence

Liverpool did not have long to dwell on Ibrahima Konate’s departure. They went back to France, back to Rennes, and backed a 21-year-old to fill a sizeable void.

Jeremie Jacquet has not blinked.

Signed as the long-term solution after Konate’s free transfer to Real Madrid last summer, the young French defender has started his Anfield career with a calm authority that has startled even those who pushed hardest for his arrival. He was supposed to grow into the role. Instead, he has seized it.

Within weeks of pulling on the red shirt, the local press had already made up their minds. Jacquet wasn’t just coping with the step up. He was dictating games.

The Liverpool Echo, rarely generous without reason, picked out his performance against Fulham last Saturday as a standout in a difficult afternoon. As others trudged off, heads bowed, Jacquet left the Anfield turf with his reputation enhanced, described as one of the few who could genuinely hold his head high.

The paper honed in on the quality that has defined his early weeks on Merseyside: composure. Cool on the ball. Unflustered under pressure. The Echo highlighted “his calm nerves” and the way he has slotted into a side in transition while shouldering the responsibility of compensating for Konate’s exit. For a defender who only turned 21 in the summer, they called it “a remarkable achievement.”

The praise did not stop there. The Echo went further, drawing a direct line between Liverpool’s past and present at centre-back. In their assessment, Jacquet is already “much better than Konate was at the same age,” and, on the evidence so far, carries “all the makings of a great player.”

Another prominent voice, This is Anfield, echoed that sentiment but pushed the conversation into a different area of the pitch. Jacquet, they argued, has not only tightened Liverpool’s back line. He has also offered attacking contributions that outstrip those of midfielders Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai in recent weeks.

That is the striking part of his early impact. Liverpool signed a defender to replace a defender. They have ended up with a playmaker in disguise.

On the ball, Jacquet has restored a quality the team had been missing since Konate walked away: serenity in possession. He receives it under pressure, looks up, and picks passes with the assurance of a seasoned international. That calm has become a reference point for Liverpool’s build-up play and a key reason why he already feels indispensable to the starting XI.

Konate’s move to Madrid, after a string of strong Premier League performances, threatened to leave a fault line running through Liverpool’s defence. Instead, Jacquet has stepped in so convincingly that the conversation on Merseyside has shifted. It is no longer about who they lost.

It is about how far this 21-year-old can go.