December will see Liverpool embark on an historic two days of football. The Reds will play Aston Villa on the 17th of December and in the Club World Cup in Qatar the following day. Playing two games across two continents in just two days is testament to how successful this Reds side are. Due to a split in the squad to fulfil the fixtures, Curtis Jones could captain Liverpool against Aston Villa, according to a report by Goal.
Due to the intercontinental run of fixtures, Jürgen Klopp will have to split his playing and coaching staff in two in order to fulfil his obligations.
U23 coach Neil Critchley will take charge of the Reds when they take on Aston Villa. The reserve team boss is predicted to name a youthful lineup featuring a number of academy starlets.
Sepp Van Den Berg, Harvey Elliott, Curtis Jones, Rhian Brewster and Neco Williams are all expected to start the game in Birmingham.
It would be fantastic to see Curtis Jones captain Liverpool. With the 18-year-old a local lad, he has drawn a number of comparisons to Steven Gerrard in the past.
Jones picked up the man of the match award when the Reds beat MK Dons in September. He is very highly thought of at the club and could break into the first team, at least on the bench, in 2020.
Aside from sentimentality, if Curtis Jones is captain of Liverpool for the cup tie it will be a vital point in the teenager’s development. It will ask a lot of him as a player to lead the side in such a talked about fixture, one that is away at an intimidating ground. Dean Smith is likely to name a strong side to capitalise on the Reds’ fixture congestion, fingers crossed Jones will do his best Stevie G impression for 90 minutes.
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