Graeme Souness comments on Liverpool talent Curtis Jones

Follow us on Google Discover

Liverpool weren’t at their best against Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon, but Curtis Jones was a major bright spot.

The Reds made changes from the side that lost 4-0 away at Manchester City on Thursday night, and struggled to find their fluency against Villa.

Jurgen Klopp has to use his bench to claim the win, with Sadio Mane and Jones bagging the goals in a much improved display late on.

Liverpool were much better when Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum and Roberto Firmino came on, but Jones stole he headlines with his late goal.

Jones, 19, has come up through the Liverpool ranks, and looks set to play more first-team football next season as a replacement for the departing Adam Lallana.

The teenager showed his quality with a well-taken goal, and Klopp will surely be tempted to play him more before the end of the season.

After the game, pundit and ex-Liverpool hero Graeme Souness told Sky Sports (05/07, 18:30pm), as quoted by the London Evening Standard, that he was impressed with how fearless Jones was during his cameo.

Souness praised his goal, and believes that ‘you can see’ just how good Jones will be, predicting that he will be a real player in the future as long as he doesn’t pick up an injury or lose focus.

“He’s not fazed by it – okay there’s no crowd there – but he’s not fazed,” said Souness. “He’ll be training every day with these guys, and that will make him better and better. He’ll be thinking quicker; first touch better, moving the ball better. [The goal was] totally instinctive. He’s thinking ‘I can get on the end of Andy Robertson’s cross… wait a minute it’s going too high’. He knows where Salah is, so he’s already stepping back. He has to adjust his feet to get his volley off. He gets a bit of luck – it takes a deflection on the way in.”

“But you can see he’s going to be a player. When you look at young players like that, you think ‘what’s going to stop them being good players?’ First thing, God forbid, is getting a bad injury that will prevent them from reaching their potential. Or if they’re not in the right club, mixing with the right professionals so they end up with a big head on their shoulders having done nothing. I don’t see that happening at Liverpool. Liverpool is not a city where you’re allowed to do that. You’re not allowed to get a big head on your shoulders,” he added.