- 3 years ago
Liverpool's Curtis Jones is in the limelight, but in reality, he's been quietly working his magic in Klopp's team for some time now...
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00:00 Hello fans of 442, how are we?
00:08 Adam here, was that a good Scouse accent?
00:11 Because today we're talking about none other than...
00:13 Hello Reds, what a win that was then.
00:16 Yes that's right, Mr Curtis Jones.
00:18 Now I've been ill this week with suspected norovirus, but turns out that it must have
00:25 just been Curtis Jones fever because he is some player, what am I talking about?
00:29 Right, let's just talk about him.
00:34 So yes, Curtis Jones of course scored two goals the other night against West Ham and
00:37 is now a little bit in the limelight, but he's quietly been the reason going into last
00:41 season as well as to why Liverpool have sustained such a winning run towards the end of last
00:45 season into this one and why they are kind of challenging at the top of the table now.
00:49 He's been a silent, obviously people have been talking about Trent Alexander-Arnold
00:53 drifting into that pivot role, but really Curtis Jones has been making them quietly
00:57 tick and the stats really do show this.
01:00 So I'm going to hit you first off the bat with the money shot, the main stat, the one
01:05 that will blow you away, so here it is.
01:08 Curtis Jones has the highest tackles in the attacking third of any midfielder in Europe
01:13 this season and what that obviously tells us is a lot about Klopp's system because he
01:16 likes to retain the ball by counter pressing should his attackers lose it, he likes to
01:20 smother teams in the final third and win it quickly for that sharp turnover of possession
01:25 as quickly as possible, that paints a picture of Klopp's system, but if you also look at
01:29 his passing map, you can see here that he really is a dictator of tempo, a lot of short
01:33 passes, neat passes and he likes to retain the ball and keep things simple for want of
01:38 a better word.
01:39 But what this passing map also shows, of course we know that he likes to operate on the left
01:43 hand side of midfield in that 8th role, but also when Robertson or Simicas for instance
01:47 will progress forward from that left back position, he will drop into left back and
01:51 fill the role there and he will also do it when the likes of Luis Diaz or whoever is
01:55 on the left wing want to drift inside, he will then occupy that left hand side as well
01:59 on the wing and hug the touchline and keep things ticking in the same sense and it's
02:03 actually illustrated perfectly in the West Ham game from the other night.
02:07 So you can actually see here it's Gakpo in this instance who's drifted inside and Curtis
02:12 Jones has got the Naus really to sort of just see where the space is and you know, keep,
02:17 I guess keep the formation quite rigid that Klopp wants to implement, but he's a very
02:21 malleable player that's not afraid to deviate from the traditional 8th position, he really
02:25 does fill in for other people and he creates a chance out of this as well from the left
02:29 hand side, but it's just an example of Curtis Jones being willing to occupy other players
02:34 spaces when it's vacant.
02:36 But just to go back to Curtis Jones being a tempo dictator, there's also a stat that
02:40 really illustrates this well as well which is quite simply put, but this is over the
02:44 year of 2023, so the calendar year of 2023.
02:47 In terms of short pass completion percentage in the year of 2023, he's got 95.4% as Curtis
02:53 Jones and the highest in the world for this year has been Tony Cruz with 96.7%.
02:58 So he's not far off the top in terms of being at the very, very upper echelons of the game
03:02 in terms of just keeping the rhythm of the game ticking and playing these short and simple
03:06 passes to just keep the flow of the game going for his team.
03:09 He also fares pretty well when being compared to other top 8s in world football in his position.
03:14 You can see here that in 2023 he's got more accurate pass completion percentage than the
03:19 likes of Kovacic, Pedri and Ilkay Gundogan as well.
03:22 And you can see here as well that he plays a fairly decent amount of forward passes per
03:26 90 as well compared to his counterparts who are elite in these positions, so the likes
03:30 of Frenkie de Jong and Matteo Kovacic.
03:32 It's not quite as good as them yet, but of course he has got time on his side and he's
03:36 a very, very young player in the grand scheme of things.
03:39 And it's also exemplified as well in his creative stats here.
03:42 Now of course, again, not quite as developed as the elite counterparts in his game, but
03:47 this is a player who's only really been a mainstay in the Liverpool side for the best
03:51 part of maybe 6, 7, 8 months really.
03:54 It's not even been the whole of the calendar year.
03:56 But the telling stat for me here is his accurate progressive passes percentage, which is quite
04:00 high with 87.12%, which is better than everyone in this list apart from Pedri, who many are
04:06 touting as perhaps the best young player in the world in that position.
04:09 But it just goes to show as well as being a tempo dictator, he really is a player who
04:13 likes to play these progressive passes and look to create assists and chances.
04:16 And by occupying other players' spaces as well, he gets himself goals, which we saw
04:20 last night against West Ham.
04:22 So let's analyse that game and a few other elements to his game from seasons gone by
04:26 and games gone by as well.
04:28 So I think first off, before we look at any goal that he actually scored last night, there's
04:32 a chance that he created very early on, which typifies what Curtis Jones is all about.
04:36 This shows us here where Curtis Jones really likes to recede the ball, which is of course,
04:40 as we know, in this sort of left 8 position of the pitch.
04:43 But what he does here, which a lot of other players wouldn't really do in other systems,
04:47 is he drives with the ball.
04:48 He's not afraid to beat a man and he drives towards the D of the penalty area, which is
04:53 unseen for most players in this position.
04:55 He then drags it over to the right hand side towards Zaboslai and Elliott.
04:58 And the chances squirmed, but it was a chance created nonetheless from Curtis Jones driving
05:03 with the ball and not always being this tempo dictator that I've just said he was.
05:07 I'm not going back on my word, but what I'm saying is he's the best of both worlds.
05:12 And again, before we go to the goals, let's go to another stat comparison.
05:16 So again, I'm comparing him here in 2023 to his sort of number eight counterparts in European
05:21 football.
05:22 But first and foremost, you can see his non-penalty goals per 90 is right up there with Pedry.
05:27 It's better than Ilkay Gundogan, who many people or many City fans in particular are
05:32 saying that they really miss, you know, they miss his goal scoring threat.
05:35 He's statistically better than Gundogan in 2023 in terms of arriving into the box and
05:39 getting in the right areas to score goals.
05:41 He's better than Ilkay Gundogan, who many people on the eye test alone have said is
05:44 the best, arguably in world football at goal scoring from his position.
05:48 So this really paints a picture in itself.
05:51 And he's also doing it whilst outperforming his ex-G per 90 as well, which is even more
05:55 impressive.
05:56 This means that he could potentially be scoring goals from range or scoring goals that he's
06:00 not necessarily expected to score, which we kind of saw last night.
06:05 Now where does Curtis Jones really like to attack from and particularly take his shots
06:08 from?
06:09 Well, if we look at games gone by in the past, it's usually from this left eight position
06:13 and it's usually cut it inside on the left hand side of the box.
06:16 He likes to really shape up and hit these bending shots into the far right corner.
06:20 Often they can be telegraphed and they can be blocked by defenders and read quite easily.
06:23 But when they are hit and they're not blocked, they're usually very threatening towards the
06:27 goalkeeper.
06:28 We saw one at Brentford away here, which was an absolute pile driver when he was given
06:32 enough time and space to get the shot off.
06:34 And you can also see here with this goal away at Leicester that his spatial awareness and
06:37 knowing where to attack is really exemplified.
06:39 You see this cross towards the back post from Salah and Curtis Jones just arrives and side
06:44 foot it with a cultured finish into the far corner.
06:46 So it's really, you know, a goal like this smacks of maturity for a player that's so
06:50 young playing in that eight position to have that sense for goal and to know where to go
06:54 at the right moment, as well as be able to strike it from range and beat a man and bend
06:58 it in that top corner.
06:59 He's got a variety of goals to his catalogue, which is something that other midfielders
07:04 in this position can't quite say.
07:06 So it's very unique and it's a very valuable asset for Liverpool to have.
07:11 So the goals last night, why were they so impressive?
07:13 Well they basically encapsulate everything that I've just said about Curtis Jones.
07:17 So if we look at the first one here, you can see here he receives the ball in this left
07:21 eight space and what he looks to do is feed the ball in with a forward thinking pass to
07:24 Darwin Nunes, who is of course playing up front, but has kind of drifted out wide to
07:29 this left space.
07:30 Once Nunes receives the ball out wide, well where is the space you ask?
07:34 Well it's probably through the middle where Nunes has vacated.
07:36 So what does Curtis Jones do?
07:38 He makes the attacking run and he's not afraid to make it.
07:40 Nunes finds him as Curtis Jones drives forward and right, okay, you can ask questions about
07:45 the goalkeeper, but nonetheless he does find the back of the net with a striker's run effectively
07:50 from that eight position.
07:51 So again, as well as being a tempo dictator and not being afraid to drive with the ball
07:55 and create chances, he's also willing to get in the box and score goals himself.
07:59 And again, the second goal he scored, he picks up the ball in the exact same position where
08:03 he has done all game, where he drove with it in the first half to create that chance
08:06 on the right hand side or where he just scored the first goal from, but this time he opts
08:10 to not pass and displays dribbling prowess really.
08:13 He drives into the box, fake shots it and drives it into that far corner, which again
08:19 is something that we've not really seen.
08:20 I said he likes to drift inside and hit those shots into the far right corner or he will
08:24 go to the back post and find the right space in the box.
08:27 But this one, he's got a solo goal in his locker too.
08:30 So he really can do it all from a goal scoring perspective, as well as the dictation of play
08:35 when compared to his other elite number eight European midfielder counterparts.
08:40 So the stats and the data show that he is one of the top performing players in Europe
08:46 in this position right now.
08:47 And he should be a mainstay in this Liverpool team for potentially years to come, I think.
08:51 I think he's a fantastic player.
08:53 So this begs the age old and slightly boring question.
08:57 Should he go to the Euros?
08:59 Well, he's not really featured in the England squad much, truth be told, but I don't think
09:04 that that should really be the case because, right, we're all adults here, of course.
09:10 So I want to have a fairly mature discussion with you all in the comments when I read them
09:14 anyway.
09:15 I suspect none of you think that Jordan Henderson should be going to Euro 2024.
09:21 If any of you do, then feel free to, you know, the stage is yours in the comments below.
09:25 Of course, he's took Connor Cody in the past for that experience.
09:28 But realistically now, I don't think Henderson is a good enough player or is at least not
09:33 even playing professional football barely anymore to warrant going.
09:36 So we're not going to discuss Henderson.
09:38 I feel like the one that Curtis Jones could perhaps push out of the team that many people
09:42 want to go is James Ward-Prowse.
09:44 Now don't get me wrong, I rate James Ward-Prowse, I think he's a fantastic player, but what
09:48 he is predominantly is a set-piece specialist.
09:49 That's what we all know him for, of course.
09:51 He's brilliant from dead ball situations.
09:53 And you know, people have been saying for England, if we had that asset to our team,
09:56 of course, with the aerial threat that we got with the likes of Harry Maguire and Declan
09:59 Rice and John Stones and Harry Kane, that if we would put balls into the box from corners
10:04 or wide free kicks, it could really wreak some havoc.
10:08 However, is that as vital when you've got Trent Alexander-Arnold in the team now?
10:13 I'm not so sure.
10:15 It's not something I feel is very necessary to have to double up on.
10:18 And of course, James Ward-Prowse has scored quite a lot of non-penalty goals this season
10:21 for West Ham.
10:22 But realistically, what I think you want to do with an England squad is build on and build
10:26 strength in depth with the profile of player that want to kind of play on the same hymn
10:31 sheet as the players in the system that you're trying to play.
10:33 And of course, in terms of pressing from the front, that is something I'm sure Southgate
10:37 would want to do.
10:38 And Curtis Jones has exemplified that he can do that in this clock system.
10:42 Having won the ball more than any other midfielder in the opposition's attacking third in Europe
10:47 this season, that is a ridiculous start.
10:49 But also as well, to go back to his passing, Matt, this typifies a player that likes to
10:53 take the sting out of a game, which is something that is invaluable in tournament football.
10:57 Let's say we're winning a game 2-1 against high quality opposition and we need a player
11:01 who is perhaps less frenetic and can really just hold onto the ball and play cute, simple
11:05 passes.
11:06 Curtis Jones is that down to a tee.
11:08 And me personally, I'd rather take a player like that to supplement the squad than someone
11:13 like James Walprowse who's perhaps a set piece specialist, which is kind of a player that
11:17 you'd bring on when you're needing to chase a game or get a goal out of nothing.
11:21 It's a bit of an intangible James Walprowse, whereas I feel like Curtis Jones is a safer
11:25 bet.
11:26 Anyway guys, yes, you can let me know what you think about Curtis Jones in the comments
11:30 down below.
11:31 I hope my voice hasn't been too raspy because I actually, I haven't had Curtis Jones fever.
11:36 That was a little joke.
11:37 I have been really ill this week.
11:38 I've been struggling and I'm still coughing, but I think I've got through this video fine.
11:42 Apologies for my slightly raspy voice, but I hope you've enjoyed the video nonetheless.
11:46 Let me know what you think about Curtis Jones.
11:48 Don't forget to subscribe.
11:50 I've been Adam Monk and I hope you have an absolutely wonderful weekend and Christmas
11:55 as well, which is coming up thick and fast.
11:57 So enjoy it, take care and goodbye.