Klopp's Liverpool are back. After a season in which they had ups and downs in terms of results and a loss of essence in the way they played, the 'rock and roll' is back at Anfield. For a style of play to work, it is necessary to have players who understand the idea and have the ability to execute it. That's where Curtis Jones comes in, a 22-year-old who wants to eat the world, and who wants to eat it with Klopp's help. It's a footballer profile that seems to have been designed in a laboratory by the 56-year-old coach. He's super, super, super important for us," he said after the 2-1 win over Fulham in which he scored one of the two goals.
Jones stands out because he adapts to whatever the game and his coach asks of him, something very few players can give you. The tempo and intensity goes up, he is also able to increase it. The heart rate goes down and you need a softer kind of music, Jones gives you that too. He is the total midfielder. He runs, he presses, he recovers, he assists, he scores and he multiplies. He appears on the left, on the right, in the centre and everywhere on the green. With and without the ball.
He is a 'heavy', who never stops insisting. And in football, as in life, if you keep knocking on the door, in the end you will knock it down a significant percentage of the time. As a starter, as a substitute, whatever it takes. The English midfielder is now a player on a mission, to give everything he has to 'his' Liverpool. That said, it has been hard for him because for a while, as he himself admitted, he had stagnated: "When I came up to the first team I felt like I'd hit a wall and couldn't take the next step. So it was about reviewing my game and seeing where the improvements were. I've always been a guy who just wanted to go out and score goals, get the ball and run.
The high level he is showing generates pressure for coach Gareth Southgate to call him up and take him to the European Championship, but knowing his decisions that seems unlikely. That could even lead Jones to consider the alternative of representing his grandmother's country, Nigeria, where he would become a star alongside other players. Jones has only played for England youth teams so he could make a change to the senior side with FIFA's permission.
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