I never said you’ve berated other academy graduates, I said you’re in here berating one of them who is getting his chance and downplaying him as being part of the first team because of ‘scouse sentiment’.
The idea that he’s getting in the team because of ‘scouse sentiment’ is very annoying to me. That’s never been true of any graduate, least of all Jones. It is, however, a regular feature of the fanbase outside of Liverpool - to deride anything and everything about the city and people while still ‘supporting’ the club. Not that you necessarily fall into that category, but its a standard trope from our online fanbase so it greatly irritates me.
Jones earned his chance, and he’s had some good games for the first team. He’s also had some bad games and he hasn’t deserved a regular run in the team yet. Partially an issue for him is that he’s still finding it hard to play centrally. He was a wide player all through the youth teams, coming in off the left and taking shots in a similar way to how Countinho used to. Just like Elliott is currently experiencing, the adaptation to moving central is a difficult one. In Jones’ case in particular he was used to having next to no tactical responsibility at youth level, so its a complete mindset change. I can’t see him getting any game time here as a winger when we have Gakpo, Nunez and Diaz all capable of playing there so he will have to figure out the CM role eventually if he wants to stay long term.
Having said that he’s never put in performances as poor as that of Henderson or Fabinho’s recent efforts.
His two main injuries have an eye issue where we aren’t sure what the problem was but we know he got poked in the eye and was out for several months - so maybe a cut on the eye and it got infected? Who knows. The other one has been a stress fracture. As someone who has dealt with recurring shin split issues in the past I can tell you it can definitely take a hell of a long time to recover from. It’s also a really frustrating injury as you can feel fine but the moment you push it the pain comes back - which I’m guessing is why we’ve had some false dawns this year with him returning to training then dropping out again. I don’t think these injuries are really his fault, a poke in the eye that sounds like it led to medical complications and a stress fracture - a very frequent issue with young players or even just young people.
I can’t see all the fuss about Jones, really. It’s remarkably similar to all the whining about Wijnaldum and the desire to get rid of him.
Jones may not be a superstar like Bellingham, but he’s an intelligent young player who played significant minutes, many of them as a starter, in a team that managed to qualify for the Champions League, just a season after his professional debut.
If our team weren’t otherwise dysfunctional at the moment, young players like Jones, Gakpo, Elliott, and Núñez wouldn’t be catching as much flak.
100% not his fault, I remember Jürgen and Jones himself both saying that in fact it was such a freak accident, and that he was lucky to not have gone blind.
Don’t let it bother you too much Sweet, it’s just the wordings I use to describe him essentially not being good enough for the club.
& I know I don’t fall into that category because I very much am Liverpool based, I’d be surprised if there’s anyone on here that is situated closer to Anfield than I am considering I work in Kirkdale, L5 and I can tell you from the 40 people I work with on a daily basis (28 of whom are Liverpool fans) only 4 think he’s of any use so it’s nothing to do with being outside of Liverpool.
This is the Gakpo thread so I don’t really understand why we’re arguing about Curtis Jones, but it seems like a good opportunity to revive my take that we should use Jones as our Firmino replacement.
I imagine it was more like four said he was decent, four said he wasn’t good enough, and 22 said ‘What the fuck are you on about. Can you get back to work?’
It should also be pointed out that one of the reasons why the club didn’t add more midfielders in recent transfer windows is that Jones was expected to, at the very least, become a regular part of the midfield.
That’s how highly regarded he was. Writing him off after two injury riddled seasons at the ripe old age of 21 is shortsighted and that’s being polite about it.
Good first touch, but doesn’t look in enough rhythm for us at the moment. Some weak shots today. Had to play all these games because of a lack of options. Now, I’d possibly use him smarter, more off the bench, etc.
Did ok again, couldv’e done better with one or 2 attempts…our shooting looks all off. 2 on target in 16 attempts today and nothing to really trouble Kepa. At least he doesn’t look shy in having a pop.
Chelsea defended him well so some credit has to go to Silva and their new boy.
