Curtis Jones, he’s quite good
Curtis Jones — or affectionately named ‘The Other Scouser on our team” by Jürgen Klopp (this might seem derogatory, but when you consider the main act to be the generational Trent Alexander-Arnold, it’s considerably less so) — has become somewhat of a polarising figure amongst the Anfield faithful. There’s no doubt that local talent is treated differently at clubs, you’ll often hear ‘*insert name here*, HE’S ONE OF OUR OWN’ sang on the stands of English football stadiums. There’s nobody that wants the kid who grew up within walking distance of the stadium to succeed more than the fans they were once a part of.
However, it can also go the other way. It can lead to some fans being overly critical of them, (often unjustifiably) second-guessing whether or not they deserve to be there on merit or if they are there because of their connection to the club. However, in the case of Jones — who grew up in Liverpool City Centre — it has gone further than that, with some accounts on Twitter going on agenda-driven witch hunts of the twenty-one-year-old, noting every wrong thing he does in a game. The reason for which is unclear, although most of them would reason that he is poor in his footballing abilities. I’ve decided to dive into that and counter this argument.
I’ve decided to do this for two reasons, first of all as a Liverpool fan I see a lot of Curtis Jones, and I believe there is an extremely talented footballer in there, who like all, has his flaws. Secondly, I believe we are seeing some unrealistic expectations for young players today, and that a select few wonderkids have skewed how we perceive development. Here is a detailed look through data on Curtis Jones, how good he is, and how good he can be.
Position/Role & Playing Time
To put everything into context and perspective, it is important to first briefly establish what Jones’ role in this current Liverpool side is. In the youth teams at Kirkby, particularly under the guidance of Steven Gerrard, he was used as an unorthodox left winger in a 4–3–3. In this setup, he was used in a role similar to how Coutinho was used at times at Anfield (starting in the wide spaces, but often drifting and driving inside to penetrate the central spaces/drag defenders inside for overlapping fullbacks). However, this isn’t the case for the senior side so far (bar a few isolated occasions). Jürgen Klopp has instead used him as the left-sided central midfielder in his favoured 4–3–3 formation.
As we can see from the heatmap above (again, apologies for the use of Sofascore), while Jones is a central midfielder in the side, he still tends to occupy those wide left spaces, with a particular fondness for driving into the left half-space. The Liverpudlian midfielder has been deployed as the right-sided central midfielder at times this season, but this isn’t an ideal role for him, as his strengths lie with driving inside onto his right foot — 86% of his actions are with his stronger right foot, as per FBRef.
Last season was also something of a baptism of fire for Jones, as Liverpool’s title defence went up in a blaze of injuries. Instead of being bedded into a winning side, he was asked to play more games and take up more responsibility than the management would have liked. It did level out towards the end (most notably as Thiago came back and stabilised the side to a third-place finish), and Jones played 40.7% of available minutes in all competitions. This season — due to a healthier midfield and more options — Jones has had his minutes managed much more, playing 30.5% of available minutes in all competitions. There have been times this season when Jones has been left out of the squad together, which is met by a furore on Twitter. In all truth, this is normal for a player that is still just twenty-one years old and doesn’t need to be looked into in any great detail.
Through the Data
Attacking Play
Let’s start this section with the side of the game Jones is most known for — going forward. After scoring four goals and getting five assists last season, which are impressive numbers for a first full season in senior football, Jones has had less of an attacking output this season. He’s scored one goal (albeit a great strike against Brentford) and posted three assists (one of these was passing to Salah for the goal of the season vs. Man City at Anfield). His underlying numbers have also slightly decreased from last season, with his Non-Penalty Expected Goals going from 0.11 to 0.09 per ninety and his Expected Assists decreasing from 0.14 to 0.11 per ninety. For context, he is in a fairly average range for npxG (63rd percentile) and at the top end of the scale for xA (87th percentile) in the past 365 days.
Shooting
One area we can particularly focus on for Jones is his shooting, and more specifically his shot selection. The scouser shoots a lot for a midfielder — 1.79 times per ninety, which is in the top eight percentile for the position. There’s no doubt that his shot is one of his strengths, he has incredible technique and can generate power and swerve with ease. Already in his short playing career, he has his iconic Merseyside derby winner, and his only goal this season was this incredible strike vs. Brentford.
As you can see in the clip above, he picks up the ball and drives (unchallenged) into the half-space. From there he can get his shot off in space, but with very little backlift generates incredible power, before the ball is deflected into the goal. However, one thing that Jones can improve on is his shot selection. This season he is ranked second last (behind Milner) in the Liverpool squad when it comes to xG per shot (this tells us the average quality of a shot a player takes) with 0.05 per shot. If we take a look at his Shot Map (thanks to Understat) we can look at this further.
The majority of Jones’ shots come from outside the area, which are low percentage shots. At the risk of sounding like the fun police (and I don’t want to discourage players from taking these long-range efforts), Jones needs to develop better shot selection. Decreasing the number of shots he is taking to play that extra pass or driving forward before realising the trigger could allow the England U21 International to further develop his game and score more goals. Jones could also benefit from developing his attacking runs, as he doesn’t have the traditional ‘midfielder popping up inside the box to finish a cross’ move in his arsenal, as of yet.
Ball Progression
While — insert alexfrco’s meme — a lot of discourse is around midfielders defending or scoring/assisting, progression is a key part of a midfielder's job in the modern age. Jones is not a particularly accomplished passer of the ball, he tends to play the safer options, ranking in the top six percentile for pass completion (90.8%), yet in the bottom 41st percentile for progressive passes (3.69 per ninety) & bottom 57th percentile for passes into the penalty area (0.7 per ninety). However, while being a ‘safer’ passer is one explanation for this, there is another — he just carries it up the pitch himself instead. Perhaps (and in my opinion definitely) his biggest asset is his ball carrying/dribbling skills. He is in the top seventh percentile for dribbles attempted (2.39 per ninety) and top eighth percentile for dribbles completed (1.5 per ninety).
His ability to carry the ball is already at an elite level. The numbers alone back this up (and I do apologise for listing these off, all stats are per ninety) — he is in the top one per cent for Progressive Carries (8.97), Carries into the Final Third (3.49) and Carries into the Penalty Area (0.8). Jones is aesthetically pleasing and efficient at carrying the ball up the pitch, which is extremely valuable to this Liverpool side, as he can then quickly move the ball out to the wide areas that Klopp’s side look to exploit. He has a particularly distinctive dribbling style, that allows him to display a low centre of gravity combined with his six-foot and a well-built frame, making it hard for opposition defenders to physically challenge him. If there is a criticism of him in this department though, it would be that he can often be careless in possession and allow players to dispossess him fairly easily, backed up by his 2.39 dispossessions per ninety. These sorts of things are expected in a young, imaginative player, but improvement will be expected if he is to establish himself in the first team.
There is though, one big criticism of Jones on the ball, and it is a hard one to quantify through available statistics. He often takes too long on the ball, resulting in attacks stagnating and opportunities to break missed. It’s a more than valid criticism and one that needs improvement sooner rather than later. When watching Jones, you can sometimes almost see the cogs turning in his head, and him doubting the decision he should be making. However, in his defence, this would be improved with more consistent game time and in turn, confidence. The pressure on a young player to produce at a club like Liverpool — who expect to win every game — can be huge. While this is a frustration, I think it can be overblown at a time. Decision making and confidence will come with time.
Defending
When it comes to the defensive side of the game, stats don’t often tell the whole story. Players in weaker teams may have more tackles & interceptions, purely based on the fact they defend more. However, if we look at them through the context of the Liverpool squad, we can get a good idea of how Jones shapes up defensively compared to his midfield teammates.
Defending isn’t something that he is particularly renowned for — especially as he is someone that has spent a lot of youth played out wide. This is reflected through the stats. Jones ranks second-last against his fellow midfielders for tackles & interceptions per ninety (2.54) — only Elliott has less — and ranks last for blocks per ninety (0.42). He can also lack in the defensive side of the game that can’t be quantified with stats. There can sometimes be issues with his positioning (which can also reflect through ranking last in blocks) and tracking back — one particular scenario that comes to mind was the failure to track a runner, which lead to a West Brom corner that they equalised from at Anfield last season. This is something that can be coached, and that will likely come from time and experience. It would be naive to think that a 21-year-old, attacking-minded midfielder who spent a lot of time as a winger would be flawlessly defensively. These are also criticisms that have been put to players like Jordan Henderson this season, so Jones is not alone in this.
Defending is though, something that he will have to improve on to hold down a starting role in the future. It’s no secret that Jürgen Klopp likes to have midfielders who can cover for his bombarding full-backs, and while there has been a developing theme of one of the three midfielders to be a creative force, the German usually favours Keïta or Thiago when fit, who put up the best defensive numbers in the side (and some of the best in the league). Better positioning and awareness will come with time. Right now, Jones is rarely entrusted week in week out — and with a few exceptions — in the biggest games. If he can show consistent improvement in this side of the game it will be key to his success at Anfield.
Final Thoughts
Jones is an extremely promising and talented young midfielder, but one that does has flaws in his game right now. This is to be expected, and the detractors of his game overlook his value in progressing the ball and creative abilities. The Liverpool midfielder was thrown into a situation last season that was hard for everyone — let alone a young player in their first full senior season. I’ve rarely seen it mentioned in the context of Jones, but for a young player in development, who would have expected 50,000+ people encouraging him in the stadium each week for the club he supported growing up, to be playing in soulless stadiums, with games and injuries piling up, must have been an incredibly difficult mental and physical challenge.
People might point to Phil Foden or even players like Smith-Rowe, who play much more key roles in their sides than Jones currently does. But we need to remember that player development is not linear, and that Jones is in a situation where he has more senior players ahead of him, who also perform week in week out and have won trophies for Klopp (and Bayern).
I’m extremely excited about the prospects for Jones long term in this Liverpool side. He adds a different dimension and profile than is currently there and has flair and finesse that makes him great to watch. Without sounding too ‘yer da’, players like Jones — local, homegrown players — who come from the city and supported the club growing up, do sometimes feel that bit more special. Whether or not he is a long term starter for the club remains to be seen, and he may go off for pastures new if regular starting places are his wish. For now, he’s an exciting young player with a lot to offer, and if he keeps development can be an influential part of the new wave of players in Liverpool’s squad.
