Liverpool have found perfect Jacquet weather after Chelsea hijack and painful U-turn

A colleague of Albert Einstein’s once described his minimalist outlook thus:

‘Long hair reduced the need for the barber. Socks can be done without. One leather jacket solves the coat problems for many years.’

Jack Grealish famously agrees with the first two sentiments. But Liverpool have taken the third on board both belatedly and successfully; autumn is here and Jacquet season feels so sweet that they might just wear it all year round.

From the capture of Ibrahima Konate from Leipzig in May 2021, to the understated arrival of Geovanni Leoni from Parma in August 2025, Liverpool did not sign a single centre-half. The presence of Virgil van Dijk admittedly offsets that need somewhat, but it was a manager-spanning, sporting director-bridging area of extended neglect.

There have been succession plans, often involving the fitness of Joe Gomez. There was a time when Jarell Quansah was being moulded for the step up, but pure profit soon did away with that notion. And Leoni’s knee injury 12 months ago scuppered his development.

Then the last-minute, Real Madrid-influenced summer U-turn of Konate, who so benefited from sitting under the Van Dijk and Joel Matip learning forest, expedited the process.

The hope would have been for Jacquet, pre-signed in February ahead of joining from Rennes at the end of the season, to follow a similar path of first-team progression.

“Apart from the fact that Van Dijk is nearing the end of his career, training with him is going to be huge,” he said in May. “He’s going to teach me so much,” before adding: “There’s also Ibou Konate who can help me settle in. Training with guys like that, it doesn’t get any better than that.”

In hindsight, Jacquet being thrust immediately into Premier League life as Van Dijk’s driver might have been the most effective path all along.

The 21-year-old has been exceptional for the unbeaten Reds, winning duels, covering channels, breaking lines and patrolling a far more resolute defence than the one he joined.

As man of the match against Bournemouth in the same week Zinedine Zidane handed down a first international call-up for France, Andoni Iraola credited Jacquet with taking “a big step forward”.

It is little wonder why Liverpool feel they ‘have hit the jackpot’ with Jacquet, who in a cursed alternate reality would be floundering in a failing Chelsea backline right now if that move hadn’t been hijacked.

He will be desperately thankful to be the apprentice to Van Dijk’s master, rather than Wesley Fofana’s carer.

“It is still a work in progress, but so far, it is good,” Van Dijk said of Liverpool’s new centre-half pairing after a third consecutive Premier League clean sheet. “He has had an excellent start, but we are only in September.”

Sounds like perfect Jacquet weather.