00:00Jeremy Jacquet has officially landed in England but his arrival was planned for a long, long time
00:05and that's no surprise. We're just a few months into his Liverpool career and he's looked good.
00:10So good in fact it begs the question, does this bloke even have any weaknesses?
00:15From dominating the wide areas to carve and open the opposition and being just 21 years old.
00:21I'm Jacob Ors for 442's resident tactician and this is how Liverpool have already replaced Virgil
00:28van Dijk perfectly. As we know, Iriola wants to press high. There's 8 Liverpool players in frame here.
00:40However, if we skip forward a frame, we suddenly see Jeremy Jacquet as the deepest defender but even
00:45then, he's still in the opposition's half and with the high speed of the Premier League, he has to be
00:49able to step and close his space or, as he does here, turn and shut down the ball in behind.
00:55Which
00:55is why it feels like the Frenchman has taken to the Premier League like a duck gliding into the
01:00water. Last season, he won 4.36 duels per 90 with a 67.5% success rate but he also
01:07recorded 4.14 ball
01:09recoveries per 90 because he likes to be involved in all parts of centre-half defending. Conveniently,
01:15making him perfect for a side who need to be able to adapt to so many different scenarios.
01:19Iriola loves to play in controlled chaos and that means his players have a mass amount of different
01:25roles. With Liverpool going almost entirely man-to-man and creating this box around the ball,
01:31Jeremy Jacquet has two roles. He has to protect the space beyond the lightly lofted ball over
01:36Liverpool's high line but he has to also go man-to-man and win the individual duel if it comes
01:41short.
01:41As we see here, he's anticipated his man coming to feet and that means he's able to plant his own
01:46feet
01:46and hold up the Fulham player so as it comes in, Jacquet can just shrug him off and recoup
01:51possession. And that's the brilliance of Jeremy Jacquet because he's so dominant physically but he's
01:56also recorded a top speed of 34.6 kilometres an hour and the 11th most sprints by centre-backs in
02:02the Premier League this season which in turn allows him to dominate the mid-thirds which is where he
02:08really steps into his own because yes, the physical stuff, the defending, the recovery runs, the last
02:12ditch tackles, etc, etc. They're brilliant. They're so, so good and so valuable. But what I think makes
02:18Jeremy Jacquet so good is his ability to start attacking moments from those deeper phases. Whether
02:23it is he's just won the ball or Van Dijk's playing a sidewards ball, he seems to be able to
02:27spring
02:28Liverpool into attacking phases so quickly, so regularly and it's been a real standout for him
02:33this season. Liverpool in possession will regularly go left to right, ending with Jeremy Jacquet. He then
02:39takes an open touch with either side of his boots and instantly gets his head up to scan with his
02:43body
02:44open, giving him multiple angles to play. Now, the fact they go left to right means that if the
02:49opposition's press is ever so slightly delayed, like Enciso not covering McAllister as Emerson goes
02:54wide, means Liverpool have an entry into Liverpool's block via a Jacquet line-breaking pass. Which explains
03:01his 16.4 line-breaking passes per 90 this season, ranking him 7th in the Premier League for that
03:06metric. The 21-year-old has such a brilliant way of just pulling the opposition out and then breaking
03:11their defensive block and it's really messed with a lot of sides' approach to Liverpool in the press
03:17and it's fitting Andoni Iraiola to Liverpool to an absolute T.
03:26Iraiola's Bournemouth would regularly find themselves in these positions, with overloads against the
03:30opposition's back line and lots of aggressive runners darting forwards. However, Liverpool face teams that
03:35drop in, concede possession, protect their defensive third whilst in a compact block, which makes Iraiola's
03:41brand of football slightly more complicated. But a way of negating that is shifting your angle of
03:48approach, consistently changing how are you trying to access the opposition's block, makes it a lot
03:53harder for them to stay in such a complex, narrow shape, giving you no space. With the ball here, the
03:59opposition are settled in their block, but the ball going to Jacquet causes them to have to reshuffle and
04:04engage more with the ball to protect space. But because Jacquet is so good progressing play, he's
04:10comfortable opening up his body and inviting the Bournemouth left-hand side over to close his
04:14fullback down, before then firing forward through the gap and creating a nice little 3v3 for Liverpool
04:19against the Bournemouth back line. In a way, the Frenchman is almost like this vessel for creating
04:25Iraiola scenarios in game states in against opposition that don't necessarily welcome Iraiola
04:33football. And that's allowing Liverpool to ever so slowly progress little by little. Because as we've
04:41previously mentioned, these stubborn compact blocks can be difficult for those big name sides. But if you
04:46can bait them out with small little touches and then very quick progressive passes, you completely
04:51transform the way those compact blocks actually look. Well, in reality, they become not so compact
04:57blocks. Before we carry on though, a quick word from today's video sponsor, Norton VPN. Whether you're
05:03working in a coffee shop, traveling away from home, or sat on your couch scrolling on your phone, you are
05:08constantly sending information via the internet. Norton VPN adds an extra layer of privacy when you're on
05:15the internet by encrypting your information and just keeping it a little bit more private and secure.
05:19It's simple to use and it works on your everyday devices and you can connect to a VPN anywhere you
05:25want in the
05:25world. So if you want to add an extra layer of security and privacy to your everyday browsing, click the
05:31link
05:31below and check out Norton VPN's latest offer. Right, back to Jeremy Jacquet. Now, the ball playing side of
05:39Jeremy Jacquet was largely overlooked before he moved to Liverpool. And I mean, to be fair, someone who's massive in
05:45high,
05:45well over six foot and is absolutely rapid, isn't typically put in with the group of modern centre
05:53halves and they're usually regarded in a different way and more about their defensive abilities. But
05:58Jeremy Jacquet certainly shouldn't be because he is that modern game playing, ball playing, ball dominating
06:05centre half. He currently ranks eighth for open play passes per 90 by Premier League players and within
06:10that he sits four for accurate long balls. I'm not sure if many people are aware, but if you play
06:15a high
06:15volume of passes, typically your pass success rate will usually drop. But for Jeremy Jacquet, he's someone
06:21who plays such a high volume as a ball distributor, yet still is able to complete so many successful long
06:27balls. And to me, someone who's 21 years old and able to be such a high volume distributor, but also
06:34such an accurate ball player, is really, really brilliant. The amount of time Jacquet gets on the
06:40ball for both club and now country, with the opposition hyper-fixated on one side of the pitch
06:44with closed off body positions as a result, is ridiculous. But he's able to show that pauser,
06:50as some may say, aka take his time, to pull individuals out and create 1v1s on certain sides of the
06:55pitch
06:56that he can target with his effortlessly clipped long balls that decimate the opposition's defence.
07:01So, the question is, with his intelligence, with his ball playing, with his physical attributes,
07:06how far can Jacquet go?
07:09Still so young. Still has a lot to learn.
07:12Well, on a club level, it's not been the start of life he probably would have hoped for when he
07:15came to England.
07:16Liverpool currently sits sixth in the Premier League, but to be fair to them, they've still not lost a game
07:22in the league.
07:24And Jeremy Jacquet is a pretty big part in that.
07:27When Liverpool have been caught out with huge distances between defence and midfield,
07:31he's been able to dominate the 1v1 duels and evade pressure with some quick feet before retaining possession.
07:36Now, when you can do that to such a high level in your first season in England as such a
07:40young player
07:40and someone who hadn't played for his former club since February,
07:44that was when he was injured and didn't play in Ligue 1 since then,
07:47that says a lot about you and it probably puts you in good stead for the rest of your time
07:52in England.
07:52And so much so that he's getting his first call-up for the French national team.
07:56And in them games, he has been incredible.
08:00Leaving us with the question, just how far can Jeremy Jacquet go with Liverpool?
08:04Is he really the man who, in three, four years' time, he's going to carry the torch of Virgil van
08:09Dijk,
08:09a legacy that's been built in the Premier League?
08:12Van Dijk, for me, the best centre-half in Premier League history.
08:15Can Jeremy Jacquet mirror that and go down a similar route as being this mainstay at the heart of Liverpool's
08:21back line
08:21and holding the hand of so many centre-halves that come and accompany him like Virgil van Dijk did?
08:27Well, it's a big legacy to live up to and whether or not they're not the exact same type of
08:31centre-half,
08:32but I think the premise is there, a mainstay at the heart of the Liverpool defence,
08:36helping to show things up when things have been a little bit rocky for them.
08:40Pretty much exactly like what Van Dijk did when he came in.
08:43And now Jeremy Jacquet seems to be doing the same as Van Dijk goes on, the new sorts to emerge.
08:48So now I want to go back to the initial question.
08:50How far can he really go with Liverpool?
08:53Is Jeremy Jacquet the man?
08:54And I want to also know, have you subscribed to the 442 YouTube channel?
08:58Because we'll be back again next week with some more brilliant analysis.
09:01The Premier League is finally back next week.
09:03We're back, guys. Just hang on for a few more days.
