‘Got to’: Ian Wright explains why Liverpool must prioritise Curtis Jones

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Ian Wright believes Liverpool must prioritise Curtis Jones going forward. The Premier League great calls on Jurgen Klopp to be ‘braver’.

Ian Wright clearly thinks Curtis Jones can play a more prominent role at Liverpool. He made that clear on his ‘Wrighty’s House’ podcast.

Wright feels the youngster should have started against Manchester United on Sunday and that Jurgen Klopp perhaps could have been braver with him.

“I’m thinking [Klopp’s] got to go braver,” Wright said. “He’s got to play Curtis Jones instead of [James] Milner.

“Bring Milner on, if you’re trying to steady the ship and hold them off, but the creativity that Jones brings – I thought he should have started.”

Jones started that game on the bench as Milner, Thiago and Gini Wijnaldum formed the midfield. Liverpool lost the game 3-2, of course.

What RTK has to say

Liverpool’s problem right now – other than the crippling injury crisis – is scoring goals. They did bag two on Sunday but haven’t scored for four Premier League games.

And there are two ways Liverpool can go about that, really. Firstly, they can add creativity to midfield to get the team going. Adding help for the forwards, essentially.

The other way is to stick with a defensively solid midfield to create a base for the forwards. Don’t concede and you limit the pressure on those forwards.

But injuries forced Klopp into the latter against Manchester United. They were already playing away from home but as soon as Jordan Henderson couldn’t play, that was that.

Rhys Williams went into defence and Klopp went with experience in midfield as a result. He was never going to have Jones in midfield and Williams at the back. It’s just too risky.

Liverpool conceded three as it was, even with that midfield.

So we don’t think it was a case of Klopp not being brave. Instead, he had to try and solidify one area of his team as another became weaker.

Going forward, though, we agree with Wright. We’d like to see Jones in the team to try and influence things going forward a bit more.

Klopp has opted for Xherdan Shaqiri to do that recently and the Swiss looks good. Jones is the future there, though, and perhaps Liverpool should take that into account.

Put the time in now and Liverpool could reap the rewards, given Jones’s history of developing rapidly.