Five games into his Premier League career, Jérémy Jacquet is already the best centre back in the league. That is a big statement, and I know it. He is the full package, and for the fee Liverpool paid, he is extreme value for money.
Start with what he does on the pitch. He is great in the duel. He can pass a ball like a centre midfielder, firing it through the lines into the players you want on the ball. Last season in Ligue 1 he completed 90.4% of his passes, 973 of 1,076, according to Opta data published by Liverpool. Since arriving at Anfield he has been part of three consecutive Premier League clean sheets, against Ipswich Town, Fulham and Bournemouth. Andoni Iraola's side have found a defender they can trust.
That makes the start even better. Jacquet arrived after shoulder surgery in March, and then picked up another knock during pre-season. He came into the Premier League without much of a pre-season behind him and started every league game from week one.
The part of his game that does not show up in a highlights package is what he has done for the man next to him. Virgil van Dijk is 35. For the last couple of years, Ibrahima Konaté was performing poorly beside him, and Van Dijk probably always had one worry on his partner. Konaté was a fan favourite, and Anfield loved the chant every time he won the ball. I never rated him. Too often, he was a calamity.
With Jacquet there, that worry has gone. Van Dijk can concentrate on his own game instead of worrying about others, and it has been a much improved Van Dijk this season compared with last. Is it down to the man next to him? Emmanuel Petit, who won the World Cup with France in 1998, has suggested Jacquet is bringing the best out of Van Dijk, rather than the other way around.
None of this is a criticism of Van Dijk, who has been performing great himself. Saying Jacquet is the best centre back in the league does not take anything away from him.
It is not only me who sees it. Zinedine Zidane gave Jacquet his France debut against Belgium, a 1-0 win with a clean sheet. After his second cap, the 1-1 draw with Italy, Zidane called him “very, very good”, praised his bravery and strength in the duels, then pointed out that he had said it four times.
The objection is obvious. It is five Premier League games and two for France. I have no defence against that. It is not a long body of work, and some people would say it is only five games even if he looked like Maldini in every one of them. This is an opinion on what I see, and what I see is excellent.
I will be honest about a second concern. When he arrived, the shoulder injury did not worry me much. Then he picked up another injury, missed a good part of pre-season, and I had a slight doubt in my mind: have we signed an injury-prone player? He was then left out of France's 4-1 win over Belgium on Monday with a reported hamstring problem. Fingers crossed he is ready for Manchester City on Sunday.
The fee looked steep to plenty of people when it was agreed. Liverpool paid £55m plus a potential £5m in add-ons. Chelsea had been in talks over Jacquet in January before Liverpool got the deal done on deadline day, according to the Press Association. He was named in the team of the tournament at the 2024 Under-19 European Championship, and he arrived with limited senior experience. At that price, with that profile, I call it extreme value for money.
It is also a corrective to how this club has recruited. Liverpool went years without adding a senior centre half between Konaté and Geovanni Leoni. Jacquet is the one the club has got right.
Some of the criticism of Liverpool's summer was justified. Some of it was mine. Richard Hughes has now left, and as it stands Jacquet and Hugo Ekitiké are the two hits from his time as sporting director. For the rest, the jury is still out, and that is being kind to some of them. On Jacquet, there is no jury needed. He already looks as good as anybody in Europe.
Look across the other big clubs. He is better than Konaté, who left Liverpool for Real Madrid on a free transfer, and better than his Madrid team-mates Dean Huijsen and Antonio Rüdiger. He is better than Dayot Upamecano at Bayern Munich. I like Pau Cubarsí at Barcelona, who had a great World Cup, was named FIFA Young Player of the Tournament as Spain won it, and is young too. I am not saying either one is better than the other.
For best centre back in the league, the only arguments to be made are the Arsenal centre backs, Gabriel and Saliba, and Van Dijk. Nobody can settle those arguments with numbers. That is just football. People have different opinions over who is the best. Mine is Jacquet, because he is the full package, and for such a young man his potential is off the charts.