Curtis Jones has sent a message to his Liverpool team-mates following the club’s victory in the Carabao Cup.
The Reds won the trophy in a dramatic fashion as goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher scored the decisive spot-kick to give Liverpool an 11-10 win over Chelsea in the shoot-out.
Despite Thiago Alcantara pulling out late with an injury in the warm-up, there was no place for Jones in the matchday squad, with fellow midfielders James Milner, Harvey Elliott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all occupying spaces on the bench at Wembley.
The 21-year-old was part of the celebrations, though, having played his part in getting Jurgen Klopp ’s side to the final, and he sent a celebratory message on social media.
Alongside a graphic of the Liverpool squad overlooking Wembley, Jones tweeted: “Well done to everyone involved!”
It has been a tough few weeks for the youngster, who did start in the club’s most recent league game against Leeds United last Wednesday.
Prior to that 6-0 win at Anfield, Jones had been left out of the last three matchday squads in all competitions due to the return of Elliott and Reds boss Klopp having all his midfield options available.
Despite his omission at Wembley, the England Under-21 international played a huge role in the club’s cup success, featuring in four of Liverpool’s six games in the competition, with Klopp praising his performance against Arsenal in the semi-final second leg.
"I know him for a long time now and I am one of his biggest fans, to be honest,” the German coach said in January.
“Talents need to work and he is doing that work. Talents need to learn the game, he’s doing that every day and trying that every day. Sometimes they need a little push and Curtis looks like he is that guy.
"Not that he is not concentrated or whatever; let me say not ‘pushed’, it’s a response, a proper response and then he can have that much more often if he wants.
"If his response is then like this, absolutely fine. Again, we couldn’t have won that game with bad individual performances and he was one of them, so he performed really well."
