Jeremie Frimpong
Jeremie Agyekum Frimpong
Current Club: Liverpool.
Previous Clubs: Bayer Leverkusen, Celtic, Manchester City.
Loan Clubs: N/A.
International: Netherlands 13 caps 1 goal.
Trophies Won: German Bundesliga 2023/24. German FA Cup (DfB Pokal) 2023/24. German Super Cup 2024/25. Scottish Premier League 2019/20. Scottish FA Cup 2019/20. Scottish League Cup 2019/20.
The 24-year-old utility player has become the first true Slot signing. Mamardashvili being bought by the sporting directors for the future (or a potential profitable sale) and Chiesa was clearly bought for Slot, rather than chosen by him. You only have to look at the way he was used to see that Slot was not hands on with that decision. So that makes Frimpong the first to arrive post-Klopp, that is the choice of Arne Slot.
It is very much the kind of player you would expect to be chosen by Slot, who is very flexible with his tactical approach and formations. Frimpong can be extremely useful in a team that is adjusting its system on the fly in matches. He has played right-back, right wing-back, right midfield, right wing and central attacking midfield. There are question marks over how good he is in each of those positions, obviously.
The biggest question mark is over his defending, but mainly because he mostly played attacking positions that did not require him to defend too much. That has seen him taking a lot of criticism over his defending, with a lot of the problems identified actually being because of him playing further forward and opponents getting into the space in behind. Is that really the fault of his defending though?
Right now, it is very difficult to really properly assess his defending as a right-back, which will make it interesting this coming season to see how he gets on in that role. Though it is clear he will probably also be used to allow Salah to rest and to cover on the wing while Salah is away at the Afcon. With the very promising talent of Bradley to compete against, is he going to be able to nail down a regular starting position in the team.
Frimpong does have a lot of traits that will help him, such as extreme pace, which we have seen with Kyle Walker at Manchester City can make up for any kind of defensive lapses. He made a career out of just being able to run very fast to get back when caught napping, so there is certainly a reason to believe that Frimpong will do well there. Added to that, Frimpong is very good at just getting wide and whipping in a cross, something that was often missing from the team last season.
Overall, he is technically strong on the ball, like most recent graduates of the City academy do. It does provide a good grounding for players who have good technique. They usually provide players with a good understanding of the press as well, which is something Frimpong has displayed. Despite having the pace to get back if he does miss a tackle, he is not one to dive in and will instead look to force the opponent into a mistake.
He will also bring a good understanding with Florian Wirtz, and friendship, which should help both players to integrate into the team more quickly. Frimpong should also be work well with Salah, as he loves to run with the ball out wide and get forward down the right, allowing the Egyptian to play closer to the goal, where he is stronger.
On top of all that, Frimpong was extremely keen to join Liverpool, he had initially wanted to join Liverpool's academy but chose to join Man City instead for its more convenient location to his home at the time. Added to a reasonable price, due to a release clause in his contract, he does look to be an astute buy who can boost a squad that was already strong.
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