Liverpool's incoming summer signing has the best qualities of Marcel Desailly and Laurent Blanc combined, says his former coach.
Jeremy Jacquet will join Liverpool next summer
Jeremy Jacquet will join Liverpool next summer(Image: Photo by Neal Simpson/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images)
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Jeremy Jacquet can 'define his generation of defenders', according to the French centre-back's former youth coach at Rennes. Liverpool made a statement of intent this week when they splashed out £60m on a deal to bring the 20-year-old starlet to Anfield for the start of next season.
The Reds currently have deep uncertainty in their defensive ranks, with Ibrahima Konate out of contract at the end of the season, Giovanni Leoni recovering from a serious injury and Virgil van Dijk set to turn 35 in July.
Left-back Andy Robertson was also subject to firm interest from Tottenham Hotspur during the January transfer window, suggesting that the Liverpool rearguard could soon undergo a serious refurbishment.
But the capture of rising star Jacquet, who has excelled with French Ligue 1 side Rennes and was also wanted by Premier League rivals Chelsea, is a clear building block for the future and if his former under 19s coach Laurent Viaud is on the money, the Reds could have just landed themselves a generational talent who can succeed Van Dijk as the lynchpin of the Liverpool defence.
In an interview conducted by Get French Football News for The Guardian, Viaud explains how Jacquet barely played for 18 months after growing 10cm in a year, but returned with more fire in his belly than ever before.
“For Jérém, it was growth injuries, Osgood-Schlatter, things like that. You know you’re going to lose time,” Viaud said. “When he came back, he wanted to eat everything up.
“It was bordering on us having to slow him down because we had to manage him because otherwise, at some point, he was going to explode. The day young players come back from injury they have a desire to grow because they know what it’s like to be off the pitch, out of training.
"Suddenly, they forge a mentality that may be better than that of those who were permanently on the pitch.”
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Jacquet initially started out as a midfielder and wanted to emulate Paul Pogba, but his coaches convinced him to move further back into defence, seeing his potential to excel there, thanks to his speed, aggression and strong heading ability.
“Where he has really advanced is in his reading of the situation and reading of the trajectory of the ball,” Viaud added.
As part of his development, Jacquet was sent out on loan to Clermont Foot, but such was the rapid progression of his performances with the Ligue 2 side that Rennes paid close to €1m last February to end his agreement early and bring him into Habib Beye’s first team.
“Here in Rennes, our boys are in a cocoon," said Viaud. "He saw what Ligue 2 was, what a training centre was in Ligue 2. And yet at Clermont, they don’t have a bad training centre, but he saw the training conditions you can have. In Rennes, we are extraordinarily lucky.”
Rennes signed Anthony Rouault and Lilian Brassier in the same month, but neither could dislodge Jacquet, whose standout performances made him undroppable. That has continued this season, with the 20-year-old appearing in every game except for a two-match suspension he was forced to serve.
His output has been enough to convince Liverpool to invest heavily in his continued progress and in the short term at least, he will benefit from having an all-time Liverpool great to learn from in the shape of Reds captain Van Dijk, someone Viadu believes Jacquet will eventually replace.
The youth coach, who formally served as a scout for Liverpool under Rafa Benitez, said: “I think the recruiters have seen in Jérém the heir to Van Dijk because in a lot of areas Jérém looks like him. I would almost say he is faster than Van Dijk. He has to learn from players like Van Dijk, but there is a lot of similarity between the two.
“I was from the generation of Marcel Desailly – I was at school with him. Jérém is Desailly on the defensive side and Laurent Blanc on the attacking side; he’s a mix of the two. When you see the careers the two of them had, honestly, I can’t imagine how far Jérém can go. He can really define his generation of defenders.”