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Curtis Jones was one of the stars of the European Under-21 Championship this summer, as the Liverpool midfielder built on his promising end to last season.
With the Young Lions predominantly lining up in a 4-4-2 formation, Jones was selected in a deeper midfield role
Klopp would be impressed by Jones’ performances for his country as England were crowned European champions.
Klopp said;
“Curtis played pretty much each minute of the tournament, one game maybe he didn’t play, but he played a really good tournament in a different role,”
"Looked from time to time (like) an adult with kids around him on the other side, he looked really in charge of the things.
“He will play probably a different position (for Liverpool) and be more offensive orientated and all these kind of things, but a great achievement, a fantastic achievement."
Yet, little over a fortnight later and Jones found himself starting as a number six in Liverpool’s pre-season clash with Leicester City.
Klopp
"Curtis on six (position) today in first half. It’s interesting,” Klopp told LFC TV ahead of kick-off in what was somewhat of a change of tune.
“From a football point of view, it would make massive sense but obviously we have to see how compact we can be.
“It’s always the same, whoever you have as the six. If you are not compact, the six is lost. If you are compact, it’s not as difficult to do. I’m really curious about that as well, how that looks."
Admittedly, Klopp’s hand had been forced. Bradley’s absence has at least seen Alexander-Arnold restored to his traditional role
Jones has only once previously lined up for Liverpool in that deeper midfield position, against Norwich City in the League Cup third round in September 2021. Such an experiment was ended after just 45 minutes
Two years on and Jones is back in that deeper role again. And while Klopp praised the midfielder’s performance in the 4-0 victory over Leicester his comments ultimately suggested that he is not his desired solution to fill the void.
“Yeah, yeah, absolutely (encouraging). Curtis is a smart player, especially when he is on the ball anyway,”
"With him and Trent, we were a bit too slow in moments.
“A little bit two quarter-backs. It makes not too much sense. We have to get out of that more flexibility. We will get there, I am 100% sure.
“Curtis is in a very good moment. Defensively, the problems we had were nothing to do with him. They just played the ball over our heads and we had to run.
“If we have a high line, we need to put pressure on the guy on the ball. That’s what we didn’t do in these moments and that’s why it was a bit tricky. But he did well.”
Evidently, it’s clear Liverpool are in need of and will pursue a more natural replacement for the departing Fabinho
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