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Inside Curtis Jones’ remarkable Liverpool turnaround after baffling doctors with problem
The Reds midfielder was in danger of becoming a forgotten man at Anfield, but his incredible turnaround in fortunes now sees him as one of the first names on the teamsheet
It says a lot about Arthur Melo’s Liverpool ‘career’ that he’s going to end up being remembered for something he did on the sidelines.
It was April 1, and Liverpool’s meek display was no joke as they went down 4-1 to a Manchester City side they had been striving to keep up with for the previous five years, but were now worlds apart from as the stresses and strains of this season had taken hold.
The Reds had actually taken the lead at the Etihad Stadium through Mo Salah’s goal, but when Jack Grealish cut the ball back for Julian Alvarez to equalise 10 minutes later, Pep Guardiola lost the run of himself as he celebrated in front of Liverpool’s substitutes.
The City boss got straight in the face of Kostas Tsimikas, who tried his best brush him aside, before a giddy Guardiola then fronted and eventually offered out a hand to Arthur, who shook it.
The resulting reaction was as you’d expect, but among the takeaways was a surprise that Arthur, the on loan misfit who is still to play a Premier League game for Liverpool, had even made the bench in the first place.
Especially when someone as talented as Curtis Jones wasn’t on there.
Jones’ previous appearance was a late cameo in the 7-0 win over Manchester United a month earlier, but prior to that he’d only been seen four times in 2023, all off the bench and all coming on late.
A player who had featured regularly in the previous two seasons, playing 61 times in all competitions, Jones had now seemingly disappeared from Jurgen Klopp’s serious plans altogether, seen as nowhere near the standard for a Liverpool side who needed obvious changes in midfield from wherever they could get them.
Then three days after the City loss, Jones appeared from thin air to start against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, and he’s started all eight Liverpool games since.
The highlight of those nine starts came at the King Power Stadium on Monday, when his two expertly taken goals piled further misery on Leicester and heaped more evidence on Jones’ growing claims for a spot in Klopp’s evolving Liverpool team which had looked beyond him.
Suddenly the athletic 22-year-old looks to be exactly what Liverpool need, adding goals from midfield and slotting into a perfect position as an attacking No.8 who seems so in tune with everything going on around him, particularly the movements of his fellow Scouser and Monday goalscorer Trent Alexander-Arnold.
With so much said about the potential midfield arrivals this summer, it is an extraordinarily well-timed renaissance for a player who has always seemed confident, perhaps of verge to arrogant to some, but who has the ability to back it up.
For Klopp it is a reward for staying patient with Jones as he befell frequent bad luck with sometimes obscure injuries, including an eye problem and then the most recent repeated issue in the tibia of his right leg which prevented him from training and baffled club medics.
Speaking after that return at Chelsea, Jones told the Liverpool Echo: “I have been on a schedule where a specialist is now on board and I am only allowed to train for four days on the pitch and then I have to have a day off.
“So if the day off comes at the same time as the game then I can’t do much.
“It’s a stress response on the bone. It’s still the same thing [from earlier in the season]. It’s kind of just going and coming back again. It’s frustrating, that is what I am saying.
“It’s something where they have said it is something they have never seen before.
“It came back three times, so yes, it’s been a hard time. But the staff have handled it well and like I said, there is a specialist on board now so we just follow the plan.”
It is a plan which is now working perfectly.
Jones is in the team and playing the football of his life, and Klopp is delighted that an option he’d have been afraid that he was going to lose has now become one that he cannot be without.
“He improved a lot, so I think a lot of things came together,” said the Reds boss after the Leicester win.
“You should not forget he is still a young boy and one or two years ago he played super games for us as well. Then he had a difficult spell with injuries, that’s true – strange injuries, a finger in the eye and stuff like this. It took him out for a real while, but this year was especially bad.
“He could watch a lot of football, he could understand the game better and it looks really like that. I think where he improved the most is counter-pressing, it’s exceptional, and speed of play.
“He doesn’t keep the ball that long anymore – he does that, and has to do in moments, but he is much quicker in decision-making and stuff like this.
“That he is a good finisher, we saw now a couple of times, both goals were absolutely exceptional. I am not sure they were real chances. First with the left foot, a similar goal to the last goal he scored [against Tottenham]. The second one is a super finish. He is in a good moment, really cool.”
When Klopp rolls out a “really cool” you know things are going well, and with Jones set to stretch his starting streak from nine games to 11 when Liverpool face Aston Villa and Southampton in their final games of the campaign he won’t want this season to end.
When the new one starts, he’ll be a crucial member of the squad.
