One of the stand-out issues with Liverpool’s midfield in 2022/23 is the confusing age profile of the players available to Jurgen Klopp. The centre of the team is staffed with youngsters and veterans with very little in between.
The other 19 teams in the Premier League have given an average of 70 per cent of their midfield minutes to players currently aged between 22 and 28 years old. In the extreme case of Newcastle United, a handful of cameos for Matt Ritchie is all they have allotted to players outside that bracket.
Yet for Liverpool, only two men in that age group have played at all and both have barely featured. Just 7.7 per cent of the minutes for players who are primarily midfielders have been covered by those in the peak age range. One of them, Naby Keita, looks set to depart the club this summer, which leaves Curtis Jones as the only one likely to be at the club in 2023/24.
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He only turned 22 in January, so his best years are ahead of him, though he won’t consider this season as one of his finest when he looks back on his career. Jones has suffered three separate injury absences and often hasn’t even made the match day squad even when available in recent months due to an unusual recovery regime. The homegrown midfielder got a rare start in the 0-0 draw at Chelsea, though, and showed what he can offer the side.
Jones was tidy on the ball, completing 91 per cent of his 55 attempted passes, though he was unable to create a chance for a teammate. Nonetheless, he played the only through ball any Liverpool player mustered (to Diogo Jota) and was behind only Kai Havertz for completed passes into the opposition box.
The number 17’s sample size in 2022/23 is too small as to prove anything, but on a pro-rata basis he is now their top player for the former metric this season, and behind only Harvey Elliott among midfielders for the latter. With only Jordan Henderson completing more final third passes at Stamford Bridge, Jones recorded the highest xA figure too (which is the concept of expected goals but applied to passing).
He also carried the ball well, as he so often has in the past. Klopp has often referenced Keita’s ability in this area – it’s why he selected the Guinean against Real Madrid in 2021, for instance – so perhaps Jones can offer this to the midfield next season. At Chelsea, only the centre-backs made more carries in total, while only Darwin Nunez recorded more which were classified as progressive.
The match wasn’t entirely positive for Jones though. Although no Liverpool player made more tackles, he was dribbled past three times and he only won three of the 10 ground duels he contested. Both have been issues for many members of Klopp’s squad this term but it remains an area in which the youngster needs to improve.
It's interesting to see Alexis Mac Allister as one of the players with whom Jones is most statistically similar on FBRef, as he has been linked with Liverpool. The Argentine World Cup winner is clearly the better of the two at present, but if Jones can develop into a player of broadly similar standard and influence it would be of obvious enormous benefit.
He would argue he needs further playing time to have a chance of reaching that level, and perhaps more opportunities will come his way over the remainder of the season. Jones’ efforts at Stamford Bridge made a case he deserves to start at least as often as any other midfielder on current form.
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