There all a similar age, aren’t they?
Still it’s a positive
I prefer them being friends with each other than with Bellingham.
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Maybe if enough of our players were friends with Bellingham, the momentum would flip the other way and players would start leaving Real to come here 
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I can’t remember the last time I saw an England midfielder have the belief and ability to take a pass on the half turn, absorb a challenge, keep possession and make a positive pass until Curtis.
Everyone else passes straight back.
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Proving many of his critics wrong just needs to stay injury free.
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Manchester City full-back Kyle Walker has been discussing Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones on the latest episode of his BBC Sounds podcast.
The pair were team-mates in England’s recent Nations League games.
Walker said: "Curtis Jones in both of the games was fantastic. I think he played really well. It’s the first time that I’ve played with him. Obviously, I’ve played against him numerous times for Liverpool, but to actually play with him, he’s got some ability.
"I feel that he controlled the game. He played the game at his tempo, he got on the ball.
"Normally, when certain players or players in the past have come to the England team and got their debut, they’ve not really expressed themselves as he did and I think that just shows the confidence that he’s taking on from this season given the game time that he’s got at Liverpool and under the new manager and he’s brought into the national team. I thought it was a breath of fresh air.”
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Curtis was like that from day in the Liverpool side as well. He’s never lacked for confidence or a sense of belonging at the level.
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That’s what I was talking about, England needing more players, proper #8’s, who can control the game. Walker knows what he’s talking about because he can compare City and England and see a little bit what’s missing in midfield.
Yeah, self-confidence has always been a trait of his. I hope that with experience, he will iron out some flaws in his game, like getting tangled in with an opponent trying to keep the ball at all costs instead of going for the safe option but Slot is definitely chisseling a different player out of him than what we saw under Klopp. If I was him, I’d spend my days analysing Modrić’s game - every game. The guy’s a master, even at 39.
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After today Luca will be watching Jones’ highlights (and seeing himself left for dust in several of them)
Jones did sit him on his arse once to start a terrific move, which got me dreaming about the next Scouse midfield great… I really hope Jones’ injury issues are behind him, I begin to see why he was so effusive in his praise of Slot and his football a few months back.
Scored his 10th league goal in his 100th league appearance.
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Watching Curtis against United yesterday, when the commentator mentioned something I hadn’t at first noticed. He said, “every time Curtis received the ball… the Utd players, en-masse rushed at him - they have definitely targeted him as way of winning the ball back quickly”
The co-commentator said… “well Curtis does have a tendency to take the extra touch sometimes” - Now if I was an elite footballer, that was generating comments like that from commentators that are both LFC fans through and through, and it was a common, generic theme in my play… Not only would I be devastated, I would be on the training ground every single minute until I could release the ball as second nature when needing to do so…
We had two players targeted by Utd… TAA and Curtis Jones…!
Other teams must see the weakness that is most probably there eh
He was also being given the ball at unsuitable positions.
As I said only Maca and VVD seemed to understand the situation to keep calm and rotate the ball. Everyone else seemed like a headless chicken.
Maybe Gakpo but a lot wasn’t going down that side.
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That midfield trio is suited to possession football but Ugarte and Mainoo were instructed to get in their faces yesterday, which they did pretty well. For positional attacks and for keeping the ball, Jones is usually a great option but for picking holes in opponent’s midfield and defence and for more aggression, Szoboszlai looks better. That said, I don’t think it would have made a difference yesterday.
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Yeah, it is also the way way we play. A lot of our patterns all over the pitch are N shaped with the ball going forward-back-forward. The first forward pass is in to feet of a player we expect to get pressured from behind. When that happens you then have a drop pass to a player who can quickly play it forward again to a different player into the space left by the pressurizing defender. That is a big part of what Arne has tried to do when playing Lucho in the double 10/false 9 thing, and it is especially useful against a side with 3CBs. Utd were especially aggressive at coming out to pressure those passes into the feet of the forward and it was a big part of Jones role to try to get on the ball on there and deal with that pressure.
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Also our posters, in the 1st 30 mins when we were in control with most of the game in their half, all everyone kept saying was play faster, all playing faster did was to give the ball away and that then got Man U’s tails up as they created a few opportunities from us playing it quicker/longer and giving the ball away.
We had to be patient and then take our opportunities when they tire of chasing the ball around, I just wish we could have that patience that we don’t have to go forward with our passes at every opportunity.
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