Jones looking like first team material
Liverpool’s 18-year-old midfielder Curtis Jones celebrated a dream first goal for the club when his spectacular shot was enough to defeat derby rivals Everton in the FA Cup third round on Sunday.
For his manager Juergen Klopp, the sight of the Liverpool-born teenager curling in a winner that any of his first-choice stars would have been proud of was no surprise at all.
“Unbelievable player, Scouser, very confident, can’t wait to play in the first team, good, rightly so, he is (on) a very good way,” said Klopp after the 1-0 win.
“I have known him for threeand-a-half years, he has made big steps, will 100% be a Liverpool player, if nothing strange happens, said an ecstatic Klopp.
“That he scores that goal? I am not surprised. He is for these situations. Still a lot to learn, a lot to improve. Sometimes people forget in training, he is 18, unbelievable,” he said.
Jones has been making clear to Klopp that he feels ready for the first team and admitted he had found it hard to feature only infrequently for the Premier League leaders and European champions.
“It’s been frustrating at times being on the bench and then getting a taste on the pitch and then being back on the bench,” he said.
“I’ve been basically begging to come on but hopefully I’ve topped it off with a good goal,” said the academy product.
“I can’t sum up my emotions. For me it’s huge just being around this team every day and learning from this group of players. There are world-class players all over this team but I think I went out and showed what I could do,” he added.
Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti rejected the suggestion that his team had been affected by Liverpool making nine changes.
“The line-up of Liverpool didn’t affect our idea of how to play; we knew that Liverpool put in fresh players and that the intensity could be high so I think the defeat arrived because we were not able to keep the intensity,” he said.
“We lost energy, we lost confidence, we were not able to build up quick from the back.”
The Italian has faced a busy schedule of matches since taking over and said he was looking forward to getting down to work on the training ground with his squad. –