It is almost a year since Lee Carsley spelled out what he wanted from Curtis Jones. “I expect more from him,” the England Under-21s head coach said. “He’s got to be the best player every day, every game. I think he can score more, I think he can assist more. He needs to show it on a regular basis for us.”
It has taken time but Jones showing it on a regular basis for Liverpool, and helping to revive his boyhood club’s Champions League hopes in the process, is deserved reward for a player whose patience has been tested to the limit while waiting for an opportunity to meet the demands Carsley outlined.
Jones impressed and scored again as Liverpool made it seven Premier League wins in succession at relegation-haunted Leicester on Monday. The 22-year-old has started each victory, and Liverpool’s past nine matches, with his form and Jürgen Klopp’s ability to finally select a consistent midfield contributing to the team’s stirring end-of-season recovery. Gareth Southgate, watching at the King Power Stadium, was given more to ponder than Trent Alexander-Arnold’s blossoming as a hybrid midfielder as Jones showed how effective he can be in the midfield system the England manager often favours.
The inevitable question has been raised of what Jones’s performances mean for the planned rebuild of Liverpool’s midfield this summer, with two or three signings long expected for that department. The simple answer is nothing. A top club’s transfer strategy, devised and analysed for at least a year, does not change radically on the back of one young player’s re-emergence. James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keïta will still be leaving on free transfers.
And besides, Liverpool have always known what they have in Jones: a prodigious talent with a consistent end product throughout the academy ranks, technically superb, a big and popular personality and a player who was accepted by the first-team squad as soon as he was promoted to their ranks. No mean feat in a squad at the height of its Premier League and Champions League winning powers.
Every young player has to bide their time when surrounded by world-class talent, but Jones’s wait was also frustrated by misfortune. Two freakish, painful injuries stalled his development in the past two seasons. He missed six weeks of last season with a scratched eyeball sustained in a collision during training.
A stress reaction of the tibia sidelined the midfielder for 10 weeks of the current campaign and necessitated a programme of carefully managed treatment, training and recovery time. Any fears Jones could be left behind by missing so much football at a crucial phase in his career have been dispelled by his recent, consistent and prominent run in the side.
“He could watch a lot of football, he could understand the game better [while sidelined] and it looks really like that,” said Klopp after Leicester. “Where he improved the most is counter-pressing – it’s exceptional – and speed of play. He doesn’t keep the ball that long any more – he does that, and has to do in moments, but he is much quicker in decision-making.”
Jones is one of several players, Fabinho included, who have benefited from Alexander-Arnold’s positional shift. The creation of an extra midfielder in possession has given Jones freedom to attack in the knowledge there is more cover behind. His two almost identical goals against Leicester and Tottenham, when arriving at the back post to volley home a cross from the right, are exactly what Klopp wants to see from players of Jones’s ability.
The Liverpool manager is adamant the talent from Toxteth has not had a bad season, he just didn’t have the opportunity for a good one. Jones is making up for lost time as well as pushing himself up the pecking order of Liverpool midfielders. He is, to adapt Carsley’s words, showing he can perform for his boyhood team on a regular basis. Klopp will demand that Jones continues to star for them, too.
