Arne Slot believes fatherhood may have elevated Curtis Jones’s game this season, but he has told the midfielder he needs to “show up” in every game for Liverpool.
Jones became a father for the first time the week before producing a man-of-the-match performance in Liverpool’s Premier League win over Chelsea. The 23-year-old, named in the England squad for the upcoming Nations League fixtures against Greece and the Republic of Ireland, stood out again in Liverpool’s emphatic Champions League defeat of Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday. Slot rejected the suggestion that he is responsible for Jones’s improvement and claimed contentment in the midfielder’s private life is a more likely explanation.
“With Curtis it is maybe not me who did it but because he became a father – and I had nothing to do with that!” said the Liverpool head coach. “You never know if that plays a part or not but since the moment he became a father he started putting in great performances. He already did this in the first few weeks that we worked together in pre-season – I was like ‘wow, quality player’ – but then his performances dropped. But since the moment he became a father he was outstanding again. I think it might have to do with that a bit, but in general it has to do with how the team plays.”
Jones has yet to win a senior England cap but, on current form and having played regularly for Lee Carsley with the under-21s, that may well change during the next international break. Slot’s praise for the midfielder, however, was accompanied by a demand for greater consistency from the homegrown talent.
“When he has the ball he is never afraid to do something special with it,” the Dutchman said. “Sometimes that has led to a situation where, in my opinion, he touches the ball too much as he’s a bit over-confident. But confidence is an important tool. He combines this at the moment with an incredibly hard work rate and we can trust him in defence. You saw how well he played against Cole Palmer, so he is quite complete, but for him now it is all about consistency.
“To have a good performance once in a while is not a big accomplishment. The best players in the world show up every three days and if he wants to continue progressing that’s what he has to show now: every three days be the player he has been for us for the last few weeks.”
Ibrahima Konaté has also shone this season for Liverpool, who are two points clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League before Aston Villa’s visit on Saturday.
The France international was an unused substitute for the final four games of Jürgen Klopp’s reign, having lost his place after the Merseyside derby defeat at Everton. Slot believes the defender’s partnership with Virgil van Dijk and a healthy appetite to learn have underpinned the 25-year-old’s recovery.
“From the moment I first started working with Ibou – his first game wasn’t the best against Man United in pre-season – but I was impressed by how much he wants to learn,” he said. “Every time we are on the pitch or having individual clips or team meetings he is so focused on trying to understand what we want from him. All the guys are quite positive in that but, in my opinion, he stands out in trying to learn the things we are trying to hand over to him.
“That is one of the reasons why his performances are very stable. The other thing is he is playing next to a player who we would all love to play alongside. But for Virgil it is the same with Ibou – I think the two of them are complementary. They bring out the best in each other so that is the reason why the two of them do so well.”
