Liverpool were back at Anfield on Wednesday as they faced West Ham in the Carabao Cup.
Despite being just the seventh game of the season, the Reds have now played four games on home turf under Arne Slot.
It has been a little bit of a mixed start for the Liverpool head coach in his new home. Two good results against Brentford and Bournemouth sandwiched a surprise loss to Nottingham Forest.
With West Ham visiting Anfield midweek, the Reds were hoping that their performance would be much more Bournemouth than Forest.
In the end, it was a little bit in between. Liverpool did not start the best and were behind inside 25 minutes. But the Reds soon rallied to equalise through Diogo Jota before the same player struck them in-front in the second-half.
Prior to that second goal from Jota, though, former Liverpool centre-back Jamie Carragher spotted the home crowd getting a little frustrated with one of their own.
Anfield crowd ‘groan’ at Curtis Jones
Jota’s second goal of the evening was a lovely way for Liverpool to go in front. The 27-year-old showed all of his poacher instincts to slot home when put through by Curtis Jones.
But while the first-time finish from Jota was exceptional, the goal was really all about Jones.
Picking the ball up in his own half, the Liverpool academy graduate spun away from his marker beautifully before driving forward in the West Ham half.
From there, Jones picked out Cody Gakpo, who promptly gave it him back. Curtis then slotted through the legs of Max Kilman and Jota did the rest.
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It was a wonderful piece of play from the midfielder, but commentating for Sky Sports, Carragher claimed that he heard ‘groans’ from the home crowd as Jones almost lost the ball early into the move.
“Brilliant from Jota to slot it again,” said the Liverpool legend. “This goal is all about Curtis Jones and that’s why he’s getting as much of the praise from his team-mates as the goalscorer.
“He picks the ball up deep, there was actually just a bit of a groan from the crowd because they thought he’d taken too long on the ball,” Carragher explained.
“He almost loses it there Jones and that’s where the groans come from. But then he quickens the play up and he’s always at his best when he does that and then just attacks the defence.”
Curtis Jones turns up for Liverpool
We wrote before the game that Jones was badly in need of a big performance against West Ham on Wednesday.
It wasn’t all perfect from the 23-year-old, but he certainly showed Slot that he deserves a little more game time than he’s had so far this term.
The run for Jota’s second of the night was absolutely brilliant and exactly the kind of thing which can get Jones into the team on a more regular basis.
Having played the full 90 minutes at Anfield, it’s unlikely that Curtis will be given back-to-back starts against Wolves at the weekend.
Nevertheless, Jones is surely now closer to the regular starting XI than he was at the start of play on Wednesday. The groans were perhaps justified, but Curtis kept his composure and delivered.
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