Rio Ferdinand has sounded a rallying call to Liverpool's senior figures, urging them to boost the morale of young talent Jarell Quansah .
The 21-year-old defender, who was on the cusp of an England call-up for Euro 2024 , found himself outmuscled by Ipswich Town's robust forwards in Arne Slot's managerial debut for Liverpool. His performance led to an early substitution and public criticism from Slot.
The Manchester United icon, while appreciating Slot's candid approach, highlighted the responsibility of players like Virgil van Dijk , Alisson, and Mohamed Salah to support Quansah. Speaking on the Vibe With Five podcast, Ferdinand emphasized: "The Virgil van Dijks, the Mohamed Salahs, the goalkeeper I think there's a job for those guys now to get around the kid and to reinstill confidence and say, 'Listen, we've all had this'.
"If a young kid got hammered by the manager or a loss of form, I used to take that on as my role in the squad to go, 'Listen guys, we've all been there, we all lose confidence. I get hammered by the manager, but he wants a reaction now, he wants to see what you can come up with'.
"I think that's important and I think looking back as a young player, I would like to see him get one more opportunity at least to go and rectify that situation and go, 'No, I can be dominant, I can win balls, I can win aerial challenges and be dependable'.
"Now, obviously, there's going to be a question mark. Is he good enough, is he strong enough and is he dominant enough? You've got Konate there and that is his forte. Who wins that battle between those two to become Van Dijk's partner?".
After the match, Slot spoke to TNT Sport, revealing: "The first thing I said was we don't have to speak about tactics if you lose so many duels, and that's what we did. It's not that Jarell lost every duel, many of us lost too many duels.
"So we needed Konate to win these long balls in the air towards their No. 9 (Delap), so that helped and gave us control. But they put so, so much energy into the first half, running, fighting, playing all over the pitch one v one, and I don't think they could keep up with that tempo in the second half."
Despite a tough challenge from Ipswich, Liverpool emerged victorious. Diogo Jota and Salah each netted within five minutes in the second half, turning the tide against Kieran McKenna's team. Slot is set for his Premier League managerial debut at Anfield , with Brentford visiting Anfield on Sunday.
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