Thomas Tuchel’s reign as England boss began at Wembley on Friday night.
The Three Lions opened up their qualifying campaign for the 2026 World Cup with a 2-0 win over Albania courtesy of goals from Myles Lewis-Skelly and Harry Kane.
There is a lot of hope amongst England fans that Tuchel can lead them to glory in 2026 due to the German’s history of winning big trophies throughout his career and the former Chelsea boss showed his reign could be different on Friday with the starting 11 he went with.
Among them was Curtis Jones, who was deployed in a double pivot alongside Jude Bellingham, and it was clear to see that England fans were not aware of what the Liverpool midfielder could bring to their team.
Liverpool’s Curtis Jones leaves England fans impressed with Albania display
The last week was a tough one for every Liverpool star after being eliminated from the Champions League and losing in the Carabao Cup final. It was particularly tough for Jones after his penalty miss against PSG but the midfielder did not show that on Friday night.
The 24-year-old has been a key player for Liverpool this year and the Reds talent showed against Albania that he can have a similar impact with England. The English media were pleased with Jones’ tidy display, which also went down well with the fans.
“Curtis Jones is great. Feel like I don’t appreciate enough how good he is,” one England fan said on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Another wrote: “Tuchel has clocked that Jones is England’s best midfield. They might be serious.”
Arne Slot needs to get more out of Curtis Jones
Although Jones has been a key player for Liverpool this season, when it comes to picking a starting 11 for a big game, the English star is unlikely to be in it as Arne Slot has been set on his midfield three this season.
Slot needs more goals from his Liverpool team next season as the Reds cannot always rely on Mohamed Salah and Jones may be able to provide that from midfield or have a more structured role in the middle of the park to allow Dominik Szoboszlai to get forward even more.
The 2025/26 campaign looks set to be the biggest of Jones’ career at Anfield and displays such as the one he put in against Albania will help him take that next step up at the Merseyside club.
Jones doesn’t lack confidence, he is versatile and can be deployed in matches that need different things as he can both speed up and slow down a game.
Slot and Liverpool fans know this, it is now down to Jones to show his quality on a more consistent basis so the Dutch coach cannot leave him out of any of his starting teams.
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