It’s been more than two years since Curtis Jones became one of the regular members of the Liverpool first-team squad. He made his league debut in the title-winning 2019/20 campaign, a season where his most memorable moment as a Liverpool player came scoring a worldie against Everton in a FA Cup tie in January, 2020.
The 2020/21 season saw the midfielder playing more minutes than ever in all competitions (1920), kickstarting his career at Anfield graduating from the youth academy. He featured in 24 league games (1272 minutes) and did some good things, but there was a lack of consistency, which you can expect from a young player.
2021/22 was supposed to be the year when Jones finally found his feet and delivered those consistent performances. It didn’t materialise that way, although an eye injury and Covid did hamper his progress right in the middle half of the season (November and December). He made more league appearances compared to 2020/21 (25), but way fewer minutes (913), meaning he was more of a bench player than a starter.
In his defence, the 21-year-old likes to play on that left-sided central of the central midfield. Liverpool have Thiago and Naby Keita already fighting for that position, the latter doing the same on the other side of midfield as well. But, as we know with Jürgen Klopp, he is not hesitant to give young players extended playing time if they are doing well (Harvey Elliott of early last season being an example).
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