Harry Redknapp has claimed that one man at Liverpool is ‘too good not to play’ against Arsenal on Saturday.
The Reds could go top of the Premier League for Christmas if they get the better of the current leaders at the weekend, and they go into the game off the high of a 5-1 thrashing of West Ham in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals last night.
Curtis Jones helped himself to two of those goals, and speaking on punditry duty for Sky Sports Football (20 December, 10:10 pm), the former Tottenham manager believes that the 22-year-old would ‘walk into any team’ in the top flight.
Redknapp said: “It’s going to be hard to shift him out of the team for the weekend, on that performance. That’s what you want from your team. You make changes and you hope the lads who come in.
“David [Moyes] hasn’t had that with West Ham. He has made some changes and there were really few performances, whereas [Jurgen Klopp] will go home tonight [with] Arsenal [on] Saturday, two or three of them who got a place tonight might just keep their place. It’s interesting now for the weekend. Great options.
“[Jones] could go and walk into any team in the Premier League, couldn’t he? Go and play regularly. But he obviously wants to play there and win his place at Liverpool. It looks to me that it’s only a matter of time before he gets a regular birth at Liverpool. He looks too good not to play.”
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Redknapp’s comments on Jones echo those of Jamie Carragher, who’s also claimed that the midfielder has played himself into the starting line-up on Saturday with his performance against West Ham.
It wasn’t just the 22-year-old’s pair of goals which made him stand out. As per Sofascore, he completed 93% of his passes (62/67), had a 100% dribble success rate, fired seven shots towards goal and executed two key passes.
With the likes of Alexis Mac Allister and Thiago Alcantara sidelined through injury, Klopp will have been looking to the midfielders who featured last night to prove a point to him, and the Toxteth native most certainly did that with his display.
Even if Ryan Gravenberch is fit enough to play on Saturday, Jones’ two-goal salvo could’ve ensured that he gets the nod ahead of the Dutchman, with Wataru Endo and Dominik Szoboszlai also likely to keep their places for the visit of Mikel Arteta’s side.
If the Scouser can sustain the levels of last night’s performance across a sequence of games, he might soon become one of the first names on the Liverpool team sheet.
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