Liverpool daily briefing: Curtis Jones shows his maturity, Gakpo returns, Nyoni trains with seniors
The LFC stories you need to know for Thursday 26 October...
With two simple words, Curtis Jones had the whole room smiling.
“Curtis, you had to endure quite a long and difficult spell where it was seemingly one injury after another,” began Mike Hughes, BBC Radio Merseyside’s long-serving correspondent. “But in the final third of last season you came into the team and made a really big impact…”
Before the question could be finished, the Liverpool midfielder had interjected.
“Thank you,” came his response. Even Tony Barrett, the club’s head of press, couldn’t help but grin.
Development on the pitch and development off it, if Wednesday’s press conference is anything to go by. Put up for media duties ahead of tonight’s Europa League clash with Toulouse, Jones delivered a performance every bit as impressive as his recent showings for the Reds, which have seen him make the jump from ‘promising youngster’ to ‘established first-teamer’, and which may well see him wear the captain’s armband at Anfield (again) this evening.
He recently went past 100 games for Liverpool in all competitions, did Jones, becoming only the second home-grown player since Steven Gerrard made his debut in 1998 to reach that milestone. The other, of course, is Trent Alexander-Arnold, who on Wednesday celebrated the seventh anniversary of his senior Reds debut.
Jones, it is fair to say, is yet to fully win over the fanbase as Alexander-Arnold did when promoted to the first team in 2016. Despite reaching a century of appearances in an era when Liverpool have been pretty much as strong as they could possibly be, and despite six months of consistently strong performances as alluded to in Mike Hughes’ question, there are still those who wish to denigrate.
“Stealing a living,” read one of the comments on my Instagram on Wednesday. “Should be playing for Norwich or Swansea,” read one on my Facebook page. Jones, apparently, only has his place at Liverpool because of where he was born. LOL.
Luckily, we found out yesterday that Curtis doesn’t take notice of such criticism.
“I couldn’t care, if I’m honest,” he said. “I just know that it’s part of the game. There’ll be times when you’re having a good game and everyone will be saying ‘he’s this, he’s that, he’s the next this’, and if you have a bad game, the fans will have the other side.
“It doesn’t faze me. I’m a Scouser, we’re used to the bad part of things. It doesn’t faze me. I’m good.”
He certainly seems good right now. On the pitch he has matured into one of Klopp’s trusted performers, a player whose physicality, intelligence and off-the-ball qualities are as valued as the skill and swagger with which he burst onto the scene as a teenager.
Those who remember the rabonas, the nutmegs and the 30-yarders for the U18s - ask Barry Lewtas, the current U21s coach, and he could give you a list of 20 - may see it as a negative that Jones has replaced flamboyance with functionality, but it was interesting to hear the man himself discuss his development as a player.
“As an Academy kid I was always a kid who jumped up the age groups,” he said. “Then I came into the first team and I kind of felt like I hit a wall, and I couldn’t really take the next step.
“So it was about just going over my game and seeing where the improvements where. I’ve always been a lad who just wanted to go and score goals and pick up the ball and run, you know. But it was at the point where then I learned, ‘OK, there’s more the gaffer and staff want’.
“Now the fans are all saying about how I go and press. I’ve never been a kid who thought about being the first one to go and press or to try and run the most, so I’ve added that into my game.
“I’m just trying to work on just the overall package. I’ve still got a lot of things to learn, but I’m getting there.”
With Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alisson Becker all likely to get the night off - or at least be on the bench - against Toulouse, there is every chance that Jones will be handed the captain’s armband, as he was against Leicester City in the Carabao Cup last month.
But even if he isn’t, there is no doubt that this is someone who has matured, as a player and as a person. He’s always been a confident lad, but he’s a different kind of confident these days. He’s relaxed, comfortable, aware of the outside world and the bigger picture. He knows who he is, what he can do and what is expected of him. He has his eye on a place at Euro 2024 with England, and looking at Gareth Southgate’s midfield options at the moment, why shouldn’t he?
He might not have won over everybody, and he probably never will do if those social media comments are anything to go by, but he needn’t worry about that that. He’s already won over the man that matters most.
Jürgen Klopp wouldn’t be without him these days. The boy has become a man, a man Liverpool will be counting on in the coming weeks, months and years.
Here’s to the next 100.
Elsewhere…
Klopp confirmed at his pre-match press conference that Andy Robertson’s shoulder surgery was a success. The road to recovery starts here, for the Scotland international.
Klopp also confirmed that Cody Gakpo is available to face Toulouse. I’ve selected him in my starting XI for that game. Have a look below.
Fair play to Curtis Jones for ensuring that Alexis Mac Allister’s backside became a topic of discussion at the pre-match press conference on Wednesday. “The way he protects the ball, I’ve never seen it before,” said the Reds midfielder of his Argentine colleague. “He receives the ball and sticks his bum out a bit and you can’t take the ball from him!” Just call him the new Kenny Dalglish, maybe?
I was at the AXA on Wednesday afternoon to watch the first 15 minutes of the Reds’ pre-Toulouse training session. 16-year-old Trey Nyoni was part of the group which was put through its paces. It’s been a hell of a few weeks for the young midfielder, signed from Leicester City in the summer. You can read a little more about him below.
Toulouse have named a 21-man travelling squad for tonight’s game. Zakaria Aboukhlal and Oliver Zanden are absent due to ankle and hip injuries, respectively, while summer signing Ibrahim Cissoko is out with a foot problem. Carles Martínez Novell’s side currently sit 10th in Ligue 1, but have lost only two of their first nine matches.
Unbelievable that there are comments like that on your timelines, he's been excellent in 2023
I watched the live stream of the press con, and I was really impressed by his reply. There’s the sense of confidence and Scouse charm (bravado and arrogance to the haters). Haters are going to hate him no matter what he does. His extravagant baller lifestyle on social is not helping.
To me, as long as he improved and got that win for LFC, he deserves the spot. He brings something different to the team. As Klopp recently admitted, he now has all the tools (players) he needs to change his tactics according to how the opponent plays them.
Curtis's success has been a long time coming, obstructed by a series of unfortunate incidents and freaky injuries. I wish him a good season, one with improved form and injury-free.