I hope I am not thinking about the wrong player, so @Sweeting please correct me if needed.
I don’t follow youth football closely, but I vaguely remember Jones as being someone who could go past opposition players quite easily to create a chance either for himself or his teammates.
He then found doing the same quite difficult after being promoted to the first team. This resulted in him being more cautious, being less adventurous and taking safer route (hold on to the ball or pass to a teammate but not take your opponent 1-on-1 as often as he did in his youth career).
He now seems to have found the confidence as before (ability was not in question I think) to be the same himself but against seasoned players now.
Fingers crossed, if he stays fit he is going to be as important as what TAA is our team today. And for a long long time.
This team - and Jones in particular - could use a bit of luck on the injury avoidance front… Every time he hits a decent patch of form, he gets injured, like there’s a hex on him.
That’s really good news and well done too for using his loaf and getting himself off the pitch. He’s beginning to look like one of our most important players now. Just stay fit now 'til the end of the season.
The only relevant point here is Curtis took whatever chances that came along his way, played damn well, made himself relevant in the matches, never giving up and now made himself a strong contender to start every single match. To me he is like the new Hendo or Milner, maybe even technically edging them but it’s his willingness to just work hard and prove the detractors wrong that earned my admiration.
At just 22, players like Gravenberch and Elliot can look to Curtis as an inspiration on how to break through in a world class club like Liverpool.
He’s more of a Milner rather than Henderson in the sense that he has probably the ability to play multiple positions. People often forget how good Milner was when he was younger in his Aston Villa, Newcastle days. And Henderson at his peak(the title winning season) was really really good.
I don’t think Jones is technically better than either Henderson or Milner but it’s his ability to do the hard work to establish himself in a very good midfield (minus the last season) that needs to be applauded.
He’s not the most skilled of our lot right now , I’d say he comes in maybe 6th or even 7th in terms of technical ability with our midfielders. But the fact that he’s been looked at as someone who’s starting more games than others show how he’s viewed within the team heirachy. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if he’s groomed to become the next long term VC when Trent inevitably gets the captain’s armband.
6th or 7th in terms of technical ability in our midfield?
Extremely harsh assessment.
He has loads of ability that is somewhat overshadowed by graft…but he is probably just behind Szoboszlai and MacAllister in terms of technical ability.
