Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has heaped praise on Curtis Jones for his performance at right-back in the Carabao Cup last night.
The Reds came from behind to beat Leicester City 3-1 at Anfield. Goals from Cody Gakpo, Dominik Szoboszlai and Diogo Jota sealed the win, but Jones was brilliant too.
Here’s what Klopp said about him.
Jurgen Klopp raves about Liverpool star Curtis Jones
Liverpool were without Trent Alexander-Arnold last night.
The Englishman is still yet to fully recover from his thigh injury, and the game against Leicester came too early for him to make a return.
Jurgen Klopp had a decision to make over who would play at right-back, and the Liverpool boss decided to go with Curtis Jones, who is naturally a midfielder.
The 22-year-old was even given the captain’s armband in Virgil van Dijk’s absence, and he had a solid game. Klopp was beyond impressed.
The German was asked when he informed Jones that he would be the captain and would play at right-back. Klopp said, as per Liverpoolfc.com: “Yesterday (Tuesday), when I told him he would be playing right-back, the same moment. I sold the right-back idea with the captaincy, let me say it like that.
“But he was already completely excited when I told him that he will play right-back. The way he executed it was super-special, I have to say. Wow. Super-smart. We thought about him.
“We couldn’t play Stefan long, we have to be careful with him. Joey will be OK for the weekend but was not OK for today. For Trent it is too early. So I needed to find solutions and Curtis was always in my mind as a potential solution there.
“He is really football smart, he enjoys being on the ball and the deeper you are the more often you can get the ball. It was a top performance, I have to say, for the first time in – for him – a strange position. He did really well and I liked that a lot.”
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Curtis Jones has always been a huge talent at Liverpool.
The £15,000-a-week (Spotrac) midfielder has always had Klopp’s full support, and he has shown flashes of his brilliance on multiple occasions already.
Yes, Jones is nowhere near the top of Klopp’s pecking order, but performances like the one last night will only help his cause in the coming months.
Liverpool take on Tottenham next and it will be interesting to see if Jones will play a part at some point in the game this weekend.