Arsenal’s Kai Havertz has endured a difficult start to the season and former Premier League midfielder Craig Burley admits he’d chose Liverpool academy graduate Curtis Jones over the £65 million Germany international.
Well, that so-called purple patch didn’t last long, did it?
Kai Havertz appeared to turn a corner before Christmas – scoring four goals in seven games – but his performances in recent weeks suggest this was little more than another false dawn for a player who has endured his fair share of those since touching down in England with Chelsea three-and-a-half years ago.
Havertz was ineffective during The Gunners’ 2-1 defeat to Fulham last time out – his display a rather effective audition for any Invisible Man sequel – and Burley believes that a man who set Arsenal and Chelsea back a combined £140 million is not even fit to lace the boots of a Liverpool squad player.
Kai Havertz flatters to deceive at Arsenal
“We know Kai Havertz has been a big talking point. (Considering he cost) £65 million, why wouldn’t he be?,” Burley, once of Chelsea and Celtic, tells ESPN.
“I’d have Curtis Jones ahead of him.
“(Not just) because he got a goal (during Monday’s 4-2 victory over Newcastle United), but because he makes things happen in the middle of the park. He gets on the ball, he drives forward, and he’s a homegrown player.”
Jones, after a difficult season in 2022/23, is now reminding everybody why he was rated so very highly when breaking into the Liverpool first team three years ago. The Merseyside-born 22-year-old was outstanding in the Carabao Cup thrashing of West Ham – scoring two brilliantly-taken goals – and is currently outperforming another big-money acquisition in £60 million Liverpool team-mate Dominik Szoboszlai.
Curtis Jones in ‘special’ form for Liverpool
“Special game. Special game from Curtis, to be honest,” Jurgen Klopp said after Liverpool added to Eddie Howe’s post-Christmas blues earlier this week.
“”We all know how good a player Curtis is. He is technically incredibly skilled. But he finds more and more direction in his dribbling, he gets better out of situations, and his pressing and counter-pressing… he sets the level actually, how it should look.
“Really happy with that.”
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