Just 12 games last season but Curtis Jones is surely first-XI now

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Curtis Jones played just 12 games last season but he’s surely in the first-XI now. The teenager has risen rapidly over the last 12 months.

Curtis Jones looks like a first-XI fixture right now. Especially after his display against Ajax on Tuesday evening.

The Scouser returned to the starting lineup with a lot of faith from Jurgen Klopp. That’s a great sign in of itself but Jones delivered on that trust.

He scored the winner with a very clever goal, sending the Reds through to the next stage of the Champions League as group winners.

But this wasn’t a one-off display – Jones has played excellently in recent weeks.

So well, in fact, that you’ve got to have him down in the first-choice XI for the rest of the month at least.

Midfield options

It looks as though Thiago won’t feature again until 2021. Klopp says the Spaniard is still ‘weeks away’ from his return – and it’ll surely be longer than that before he’s starting games.

Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could be back this month, though – but neither should command a spot over Jones right now.

We already believed that the 19-year-old was above Keita in the pecking order and his Ajax performance only increases that belief.

Oxlade-Chamberlain, too, has a fight on if he wants Jones’s spot. Jones is playing better and better, after all, and doesn’t look like slipping back down that order anytime soon.

His real test will be when Thiago is back and if Liverpool move Fabinho back into midfield. Neither should happen until next month at the earliest, however.

So for now, Jones – who played only 12 games last season – should be in the first-choice XI. And that’s a pretty incredible rise for the youngster.