‘Consistent top performer’: Liverpool coach tips teenage talent for big Anfield future

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Premier League leaders Liverpool have a brilliant young talent in Curtis Jones – Jurgen Klopp and Neil Critchley are both huge fans.

Liverpool U23 coach Neil Critchley has paid tribute to the remarkable progress made by Curtis Jones this season, while speaking to the club’s official website.

It is hard to believe that, back in the summer of 2019, a homegrown midfielder was being asked to add more goals to his game. These days, no one could question Jones’s ability to put the ball in the back of the net.

The Liverpool-born 19-year-old has scored for fun all throughout 2019/20 and notched an eight-minute hat-trick in a 6-0 blitz of Sunderland on Monday. This is not even the first treble Jones has produced in recent months.

It was Napoli who were on the wrong end of the teenager’s ever-improving finishing skills in a 7-0 UEFA Youth League battering in November.

No wonder Critchley is thrilled about the progress of a player with the world at his feet.

“The longer the game goes on I would have been surprised if Curtis hadn’t have scored,” Critchley said after Jones’ latest three-goal haul. “They were top goals as well.

“He is [making big strides]. Curtis has been a consistent top performer for us this season and I suppose the test for him now and the test for us is to keep driving the standard for him and not to settle for what he’s got.

“I know he won’t be and he will be looking for more. He has had a taste of it and he wants more of that. Curtis knows he has to keep performing if he wants more chances at senior level but I’m sure that will come at some point.”

Jones wrote his name into Liverpool folklore with that sublime long-range curler to knock bitter rivals Everton out of the FA Cup in January, an effort reminiscent of Wayne Rooney’s infamous wonder-goal against Arsenal all the way back in 2002.

And with Adam Lallana set to bid farewell to Anfield in the summer, Jones appears to be on the verge of establishing himself as a key part of Jurgen Klopp’s first-team plans.