Curtis Jones hasn’t been the luckiest player when it comes to injuries over the past two seasons. As a result, having only made his latest return as a substitute against Brentford last week, it perhaps went under the radar when he was absent from the Liverpool matchday squad against Wolves on Saturday.
Yet 16 hours later and he was surprisingly starting for the club’s Under-21s against Tottenham Hotspur, as the young Reds were on the wrong side of a controversial red card issued to Calvin Ramsay midway through the first half and fell to a 2-0 defeat.
With first team manager Jurgen Klopp watching on, Jones played the entire first half against Spurs before being withdrawn at half-time. Such a change was pre-planned, with the German departing the Academy at the break.
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It’s easy to forget the midfielder is still eligible for Under-21s football, despite the fact that this appearance was his first at this level for three years. And speaking to the ECHO after the game, Under-21s manager Barry Lewtas manager confirmed it won’t be a regular occurrence when elaborating on Liverpool’s decision to include Jones.
“It’s just to give him more minutes. Curt’s been unbelievably unfortunate with injuries,” he said. “Sometimes this is just a really good opportunity for him to get a shirt on. There’s nothing like a game.
“It’s not Anfield, but putting the kit on and playing against people who want to tackle you, chase you and there’s something on it - you can’t replicate that sometimes. For Curt, he was always only going to get 45 minutes.
“It was a really good chance for him to run around and blow some of the cobwebs off. Oh he is (a cut above) and he wasn't the oldest player out there either. That goes to show the level of where he is.
“He’s definitely fled the nest from us but one thing we are able to do here is we do try and replicate the way the first team play. So the beauty is, if someone needs minutes, they can drop in and the shape’s the same, the ideas are the same.
“It’s a little bit of practice for him. Harvey (Elliott) did it last year. He dropped down and got a few minutes. Today it was also Calvin’s turn, for a short while, and Curtis’ chance as well. It won’t be a common thing, it’s not regular, those players playing for us all the time.
“But it is becoming a little bit more common, players being able to drop in. Nat Phillips has done it, Fabio (Carvalho) has done it, Calvin and Curtis. For us, the real pleasing thing is that the manager trusts the way and the style which we play so he is able to do it.”
Jones has played just eight times this season because of injuries, and has been left unable to find rhythm to play his best football as a result. With Liverpool struggling overall, and their midfield issues well-documented, the Scouser has found himself on the receiving end of outside criticism from frustrated fans.
Yet Lewtas praised Jones’ mentality following his Under-21s return as he revealed the midfielder even asked to stay on beyond the half-time break, having seen the young Reds reduced to 10 men. Meanwhile, he also alluded to the impact that the first-team's struggles, along with subsequent supporter backlash, had been having on the boyhood Red so far this season.
“He was buzzing to be back in the Academy, he’d forgotten what it looked like,” he said. “The empty stands, there’s no worry, no-one’s going to criticise.
“Curtis is a great character, a really special character as a person. For someone like him, he’s been through this journey. When he comes down, he does it properly.
“He has a responsibility to be the senior professional and show how things are done. He was gutted to come off. He knew he was coming off on 45 but because we went down to 10, he said he wanted to stay on for longer and help the team. That’s how he is really.
“For the younger boys, it’s great. It’s another link and sign of that connection (to the first team). Calvin’s new, so it’s a little bit different. But Curtis and Nat Phillips, them type of boys, they come in the dressing room and give it an extra lift.”
Meanwhile, Lewtas was seen talking to Klopp at half-time before the German’s mid-game departure. Delighted for his players at his attendance, he lifted the lid on what had been said.
“I love it! For us, it’s great. My job is to showcase the boys, that’s the job,” he said. “They do watch the games back, they do watch the video. But when the boys actually see them here, they believe it really.
“Of course (Klopp being here is a chance for players to catch his eye), which makes it (the red card) a bit more of a shame really. But there’s always perks, isn’t there?
“The boys did show real good character when we did go down to 10 men. I actually thought we played really well. We just want to keep playing the way we’re playing, keep pushing on, keep developing, keep improving.”
He continued: “I think he (Klopp) thought the goal was offside so that made it easy for me to have a little moan! We decided to change the shape a little bit just before half-time and keep going with that really, so it was more around that and the minutes for the boys as well.
“He’s a busy man! There was an understanding about how the second half might look (after the red card and half-time changes) as well. While it’s a really good character-building situation, the game was always going to look a little bit different in the second half.”
Lewtas was actually booked by referee Daniel Middleton late in the second half, having taken issue with his officiating on more than one occasion. Ultimately, Ramsay’s red card for a professional foul, despite replays suggesting he did not touch the Spurs forward, was not the only decision he disagreed with as the dismissal changed the tide of the game.
“I’m a little bit sore around the refereeing but I can’t control that,” he admitted. “The red card’s a tough one really. I’ve not watched it back. The wide player does really well. He makes it difficult for Calvin, he runs across him.
“We probably got a warning early on. We said about the diagonal pass and the pass in behind. It was disappointing to get caught out with it and that can happen really.
“It changes the flow of the game. For a group of young lads as well, it’s probably the first experience some of them have had of that. We go down to 10 men and we’re still pressing high up the pitch. It’s a really lovely exuberance but we just couldn’t get through the half unfortunately.
“We kicked a little bit long when we went down to 10 men, just to regroup. That’s not really us but I understand why the lads did it. So we spoke about getting the extra player where we wanted to get him.
“We wanted to use Harvey (Davies) and I thought he did really well in the second half as the extra player, using the goalkeeper. Bit more control. Defensively, we showed some video of how we wanted to block up a little bit more in a bit of a 4-4-1 shape. I thought we did it really well actually.”
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