Curtis Jones could be in line to start in attack for England under-21s on Tuesday night following an injury to international teammate Folarin Balogun.
The on-loan Arsenal striker has pulled out of Lee Carsley’s squad, duly leaving Cameron Archer as the only recognised striker for the ex-Everton midfielder to call upon (Daily Mail).
The Liverpool youngster came off the bench for the Young Lions on Saturday to score his team’s third goal in the 4-0 win over France, and the Daily Mail have reported that he looks set to start up front against Croatia tomorrow night.
The England under-21 boss said of that potential tweak to his starting XI: “We have to be creative. Curtis has got real good attributes. He causes a lot of problems when he does drop deep.”
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Jones is primarily a central midfielder, although he has prior experience of playing as a centre-forward, doing so for Liverpool in a UEFA Youth League clash against Napoli in 2019/20 (Transfermarkt).
Nonetheless, it’s a rather unfamiliar position for him, so from a Reds perspective it could be interesting to see how he fares if selected in that role tomorrow night.
The 22-year-old goes into the game off the back of a brilliant backheeled finish at the weekend, and if he can also find the net against Croatia, he’ll return to Merseyside buoyant from a productive few days.
Jones has had a frustrating season at club level, featuring for little more than 300 minutes in Jurgen Klopp’s first team and failing to score so far in 2022/23 (Transfermarkt), but he looks like being one of Liverpool’s biggest winners from the international break.