Curtis Jones could be the answer to a repeated Liverpool problem over the next month. He’s someone singled out for a ‘very important’ role.
We wrote ahead of Chelsea vs Liverpool that Naby Keita should be a guaranteed starter. There was one real reason for this – Thiago couldn’t play and the Reds miss him desperately.
It’s a drum we’ve banged for a while. Thiago is in the side as a progressive midfielder, someone who can get on the ball and move Liverpool between the lines with his passing. When he’s not there, the team is too static.
Keita is a different player. He isn’t the same kind of passer that Thiago is but he can be incredibly progressive – he just does it through carrying the ball.
Liverpool aren’t the same team but they certainly aren’t static, either. We were surprised, then, that Keita sat on the bench for 68 minutes against Chelsea.
Once he was on, though, it was clear Liverpool missed him. Keita carried the ball into the final third twice in his 22 minutes – as many as anyone managed in Red over the full 90. He managed 3 ‘progressive carries’ in that time, too, with Liverpool’s best individual number being five.
Keita also completed a pass into the penalty area, which was something only four other players managed. No one did it more than once, either.
The big problem, though, is that Keita has now left to play at the Africa Cup of Nations. Liverpool have neither Keita or Thiago – but there is an alternative.
Liverpool can turn to Curtis Jones
“Yes, it’s cool to have him back,” Klopp said about Curtis Jones last week, per Liverpoolfc.com. “Especially with the Thiago situation, Naby [Keita] situation from the 3rd [of January] on and all these kind of things.
“Very important for us, really happy and he looks good.”
It certainly sounds as though Klopp sees Jones for this role as a ‘progressive’ midfielder, then. And it’s a role that really suits him.
Even his stats against Chelsea show that. Jones literally played a minute + stoppage time but managed to complete four carries in that time. Combined, those carries moved Liverpool forward 23 yards – for perspective, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain managed to carry the ball forward for seven yards in 22 minutes and James Milner 37 yards in 68 minutes.
Yes, it’s an incredibly small sample size but it’s decent evidence that Jones naturally does things that others can’t. Fortunately, season-long data samples tell us the same thing.
And with Keita and Thiago out, the 20-year-old is almost certainly Liverpool’s best answer in midfield.
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