Let's talk about Curtis

[rurikbird]

It's early days, but he is starting to show it might be have been premature to give up on him, as many of us kind of did (myself included). In a midfield three where Trent is the main creative force, Curtis's strengths come to the fore, his ball-carrying and protection, pretty good physicality and now even some incisive passing, which was not the case before. The best thing you could say about him nowadays is that he is playing in Thiago's place on merit.

Does he have a future as a useful, homegrown squad player at Liverpool?

 

[bluebell]

He has two had good games vs season upon season of unnoticeable performances plagued by injuries.
He is slow, weak and holds the ball up too long where he loses it or passes it 5 yards.
I hope he proves me wrong and becomes a £40m player

 

[juniormember]

That beautiful pass aside, still not sold on him. Still has the tendency to not release the ball quickly.

 

[peekay]

My concern is his statement that after 4 days of practice he will need a day off. Will that injury get worse. He still has some way to go with respect to decision making but definitely worth keeping as a squad option. As you pointed out he has good ball skills, can carry the ball into dangerous areas and play cute football if needed. He also has a good shot on him.

 

[Dreambeliever]

I’ve been a huge fan since I first saw him in the u16’s years ago and have always had high hopes.
He hasn’t hit them yet but I still feel like he can become an integral part of a trophy winning team at Liverpool.

Apart from the fact he’s apparent a bit of a scally what’s not to love about a local lad making it in the first team.

Loving what he’s doing now he’s fit and hoping he can stay fit for a long period of time.

 

[Farkmaster]

He's young, local, and there's something there.

Unless he wants to go, what is the problem? At the worst he's a good backup cm. I don't see any sense in getting rid of him unless someone is paying well over the odds.

 

[StevieM]

Worse case scenario - some consistent decent performances will increase his transfer value.

Remember if we’re going spend big on transfers it means we have to be brutal about selling to raise revenue - we can’t bring in loads of players AND keep everyone - we’re either selling younger players with high potential or our better players close to their peak.

We won’t generate enough selling kids to lower league clubs or oldies that are past their best.

 

[King Binny]

Jones is a year younger than Gallagher but has almost 50% less appearances as the latter had loan spells at Swansea, West Brom and Crystal Palace. I don't think Jones is much inferior to Gallagher but look at the fee Gallagher is commanding. Right loan moves helped the likes of Mount and Abraham too.

Ideally, if Jones (or even Bajcetic) are going to be kept as squad options next season and if we manage to bring in the midfield reinforcements, I would rather he gets loaned to another top flight team to get regular football to develop - esp. if we miss out on European football.

 

[KopRed]

Harvey was the flavour of the day against United as well. The best time to judge a player is when we are not playing well as a team. CJ has had good games in the past but he has never shown himself to be capable of sustaining it. It's high time he steps up, he's been with us for 5 years.

 

[Squiggles]

The frustrating nature of the weaknesses in Jones game gets him more harshly judged than he often deserves and that can lead to some oversight of his natural ability. His injury issues this year are a worry but he's got the tools to make it here long term. If Trent is taking up the deep lying play maker role, we have less need for Thiago's creativity at LCM. Jones increased speed, mobility and pressing, alongside his ability to keep possession and circulate the ball effectively are going to be useful in the new set up. There's areas he needs to work on - releasing the ball earlier as we all know, progressing the ball more effectively from the deeper areas, as well as adding some upper body strength will help him become more press resistant when collecting the ball from the CB's. In a sense we need to get him more Wijnaldummmy than he currently to provide some balance down the left hand side and enable Robertson to get up the pitch.

Given the price of home-grown CMs there's absolutely no reason why doesn't have a future at the club. He just needs to keep himself fit and perform when the opportunities arrive because his development has been stagnated as a result.

 

[binomial]

Clever player, decent on the ball and I'm sure he'll go on to have a good career at a good level but he's never becoming a regular hear....nor at a club with title ambitions.

 

[darkstarexodus]

I'm happy to see him having a run of games and a patch of form. This season and next are very important for him. I don't know if he will make that next step to truly demand a starting role in a title contending side but he's a valuable squad member and I'm pulling for him.

If he's going to get games here, keep him. If he's going to be say on the bench, loan. We need to cultivate either his game or his value, so he needs to be playing as much as his body will allow.

 

[keniget]

He's young, local, and there's something there.

Unless he wants to go, what is the problem? At the worst he's a good backup cm. I don't see any sense in getting rid of him unless someone is paying well over the odds.

This pretty much.

 

[Modo]

Is he better than Pedri? No
Bellingham? No
Ramsey? No
Wirtz? No
Musiala? No
Gravenberch? No
Gavi? No
Camavinga? No

He's not even the best young midfielder in the club. Bajetic is better.

And they're all younger than him.

So is he good enough to command a starting place at LFC? Hell no.
Squad player?
Sure why not. 6-7th option tops.

 

[binomial]

Tbf Modo you've only gone and picked out the best 5-6 youngsters in world football....we're not exactly gonna pick up any of them (even if we had the money) to replace him....if you're gonna compare him to young players, make them so they're not against regular starters for club and country.

Not all our squad players need to be compared to the best 5-6 in the world in their position.

 

[Modo]

Tbf Modo you've only gone and picked out the best 5-6 youngsters in world football....we're not exactly gonna pick up any of them (even if we had the money) to replace him....if you're gonna compare him to young players, make them so they're not against regular starters for club and country.

Not all our squad players need to be compared to the best 5-6 in the world in their position.

I could have picked the top 50, he probably wouldn't have made it.
My point is that's the talent that we see among our competitors. That's the players we should strive to get.

 

[binomial]

I could have picked the top 50, he probably wouldn't have made it.
My point is that's the talent that we see among our competitors. That's the players we should strive to get.

Maybe, maybe not....but you didn't which made it wholly unfair on the lad. (I'm not his biggest fan either btw)

That's probably his competitors in terms of who he sees himself closely to in playing style but only 1 of those players you mentioned play in the Prem....& if it wasn't for this shitty season I wouldn't have called them a competitor of ours.

You really think with these owners and no CL next season we can attract any of the above?

 

[Modo]

Maybe, maybe not....but you didn't which made it wholly unfair on the lad. (I'm not his biggest fan either btw)

That's probably his competitors in terms of who he sees himself closely to in playing style but only 1 of those players you mentioned play in the Prem....& if it wasn't for this shitty season I wouldn't have called them a competitor of ours.

Our competitors will buy those players though

 

[binomial]

Our competitors will buy those players though

Perhaps.

Which young players did we sign that went on to be mega stars in the Klopp era?

 

[Modo]

Perhaps.

Which young players did we sign that went on to be mega stars in the Klopp era?

Can't think of anyone. We've tried with Harvey and Carvey but they're bargain basement deals.
Haven't seen us sign a top class proven talent yet. Not for big money at least

 

[binomial]

Can't think of anyone. We've tried with Harvey and Carvey but they're bargain basement deals.
Haven't seen us sign a top class proven talent yet. Not for big money at least

Which proves we dont really need to be fishing in that market…

 

[Modo]

Which proves we dont really need to be fishing in that market…

How does it prove that? Maybe that's the reason we're in this predicament with an ageing midfield and no suitable young-ish replacements.

 

[Frogfish]

I’ve been a huge fan since I first saw him in the u16’s years ago and have always had high hopes.
He hasn’t hit them yet but I still feel like he can become an integral part of a trophy winning team at Liverpool.

Apart from the fact he’s apparent a bit of a scally what’s not to love about a local lad making it in the first team.

Loving what he’s doing now he’s fit and hoping he can stay fit for a long period of time.

What's not to love about Scallies? You racist !

 

[binomial]

How does it prove that? Maybe that's the reason we're in this predicament with an ageing midfield and no suitable young-ish replacements.

If people still haven't pointed on the reasons how we've ended up in this predicament then I question what those people have been watching for the last 12 months.

There's nothing wrong with signing 23-28 year old players, Arsenal and City don't exactly have a young midfield....yes the problem with ours is we're ran them into the ground for the last 6-7 years without help.

 

[Frogfish]

A squad will usually contain 8 midfielders. Let's say for argument's sake that we buy three in the Summer, at whatever level.

That means we have New x 3, Fabinho (contract to 2026 a cert to stay), Bajcetic, Hendo (a cert for at least 1 more season), Thiago (a cert for at least one more season) & Jones.

Out : Keita, Ox., Melo, maybe Milner?

Doubts : Elliott, Carvalho, Jones. If we need the money for the 3 new midfielders I doubt these will survive. Otherwise Jones stays in the squad and the other two go out on loan.

 

[Modo]

If people still haven't pointed on the reasons how we've ended up in this predicament then I question what those people have been watching for the last 12 months.

There's nothing wrong with signing 23-28 year old players, Arsenal and City don't exactly have a young midfield....yes the problem with ours is we're ran them into the ground for the last 6-7 years without help.

Absolutely nothing wrong with buying 23+ players in general. But when you don't have younger players backing them up you don't have natural progression. Now we have a 17-18 year old backing up Fabs. Ideally there should be a 22-24 year old ready to go.
But instead we have to pretty much buy 3 new midfielders.

 

[binomial]

Absolutely nothing wrong with buying 23+ players in general. But when you don't have younger players backing them up you don't have natural progression. Now we have a 17-18 year old backing up Fabs. Ideally there should be a 22-24 year old ready to go.
But instead we have to pretty much buy 3 new midfielders.

But the problem was we didn't have anyone backing them up because they were out injured for 6-7 months every year, all the work was put on Fab Hendo Gini/Milner during Klopp's inaugeration until it became Fab Hendo Milner/Thiago....by the time it got to this part <- it became too much for them to handle collectively.

Had we signed a midfielder or 2 last summer (say Palhinha & Nunes) we wouldn't be in this position we're in.

 

[Modo]

But the problem was we didn't have anyone backing them up because they were out injured for 6-7 months every year, all the work was put on Fab Hendo Gini Fab Hendo Gini/Milner until it became Fab Hendo Milner/Thiago.

Well aware of that, I even said it. We ran them to the ground and we didn't have suitable replacements and that's on Klopp imo. Ox and Keita should have been shipped out years ago.

 

[Woland]

Some dickhead was comparing him to Keita in the other topic. If he'd have cost a billion quid, been paid millions, had no discernable talent, kept himself out the team and ran his contract down, then yeah, compare him to that useless aquilani impersonating shitbox

As it is, he's the best thing out of our academy since trent, definitely talented enough, unlucky with injuries, costs very little. Hope he's back for a long time.

 

[peekay]

I posted this about Jones in February of 2022. Still stand by the statements I made about Jones.

"Quite a decent percentage of our legends and very good players when they were 21 would have been shown up by an 18 year old Harvey Elliott. Elliott is a very impressive 18 year old. He is not in the Gerrard, Owen, Fowler bracket whose talent screamed "play me every game" when they were 18, but definitely in the tier below that.

But youngsters develop very nonlinearly. Just because Elliot at 18 looks a couple of tiers above Henderson at 20, doesnt guarantee Elliott at 28 will be as important as Henderson at 28.

Jones is a tier or two below Elliott and that is not a bad place to be. Plenty of very good to great PL players were in the Jones's tier or below that when they were 18-20.

Jones has shown in the past that he belongs in a PL midfield. He is now being asked to curb his natural instinct and play a different game. It will take time for a youngster to learn how to do that. It took the great Thiago more than a season to become an integral part of this midfield. There are a lot of positive aspects to Jones's game. He has the confidence. He can dribble and take the ball into dangerous areas. The sort of thing we bought Keita for before his untimely death (RIP). He has good shot taking ability - capable of the spectacular. Worst case, he develops into a MOTD player who does something spectacular every few weeks. It is worth persisting with him as there will be plenty of clubs willing to pay top money for a English MOTD player.

I think the biggest problem with Jones is that his whole demeanor is kind of unlikable. I suspect that is why criticism of him is a bit on the harsher side. He scored a brilliant winner against Everton which made T-Rex hands look like a chump in a FA cup knockout game. And we all know it is not a one off and he is capable of more such goals. So definitely worth persisting with him. At the very least, he will rise to a Ox or Lallana level talent."