Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah was eager to train on Sunday to make up for his minor mistakes against Ipswich, after being mercilessly criticised by new head coach Arne Slot at half-time last Saturday.

The youngster was pictured with a somber expression on the bench after being replaced by Ibrahima Konate at half-time. Liverpool were still level, but Slot said his team were losing too many duels to Ipswich’s skinny forward Liam Delap.

And Slot has revealed that he spoke to Quansah and the team on Sunday to make it clear that he was not being singled out for criticism. The 21-year-old had not made his Reds debut this time last year but had a breakthrough season and earned a call-up to the England senior team.

Asked how he reacted to this perceived setback, Slot said: “In a way you would expect a player to react. I spoke to him right after the game and again on Sunday, the day after. At the end of that conversation he asked if he could train on Sunday.

“Normally he should have done recovery (sessions) that day, but he asked to train. On Tuesday he had a small injury, so he couldn’t train on Wednesday, so let’s see if he can train today. He reacted as every player should react.

Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah asked to train on Sunday after mistakes at Ipswich

New coach Arne Slot mercilessly lifted the central defender off the ground during half-time in the 2-0 victory

“I don’t think there has to be that much behind it. What I said was that he didn’t lose every duel. But he lost one or two important ones. What I was told is that I said he lost every duel, which he didn’t. I told the team that it wasn’t about Jarell.

‘We as a team weren’t doing well. The only threat Ipswich had at the time was (Liam) Delap and he won one or two important duels. I tried to take that strength out of their team by bringing in Ibou (Konate).’

As Slot noted, Quansah is a doubt for Sunday’s game against Brentford, who signed two players from Liverpool this month in Fabio Carvalho and Sepp van den Berg. The latter is leaving and Liverpool have four experienced centre-backs.

The future of one of them, Joe Gomez, remains uncertain, but Slot hinted he expects the Englishman to stay despite being left out of the squad for the trip to Portman Road last week.

Asked if Gomez’s head is in the right place after his uncertainty over his future, Slot said: “Yes, it’s been in the right place for three weeks. He’s worked very hard since he came back. He didn’t play much at the European Championship.

Slot felt his team lost too many duels (above: Quansah, fourth from right, challenging in the air)

Ibrahima Konate was brought on for Quansah as the Reds kept a clean sheet

‘And when he came back in the first session he couldn’t train the whole session so we had to manage his load and that was also a bit of a reason why he wasn’t in the team on Sunday. But this week he had a good week in terms of load and how much he could do with the team.

“He’s one of the players where I see new things and learn things from him, also in combination with other players. It’s been a good week for him and us so far. At the moment I expect everyone to be here (after the transfer window).”