Liverpool star on the Luka Modrić development arc

Liverpool are flying at the top of the Premier League, and they’re doing it while tinkering around with their lineup a bit. As is normal for a first year manager just a couple months into a job, Arne Slot doesn’t exactly know his best XI yet. But I think he’s about to settle on a new first choice attacking midfielder, because Curtis Jones is absolutely balling.

Dominik Szoboszlai started the season as Liverpool’s No. 10, with Jones missing a few games due to a muscle injury picked up in preseason. After a few promising sub appearances in the league and a pair of extremely impressive starts in the EFL Cup, Jones started getting the nod in big games.

Jones’ close control and dribbling ability are outstanding, and they’re not just for highlight comps set to some dreadful EDM by a Moldovan DJ. He’s actually creating value for his team with those skills, breaking the midfield line to draw defenders towards him and open up space for his teammates, ultimately leading to big scoring chances.

Relative to Szoboszlai, he’s been much better as a dribbler this season, while avoiding bad turnovers and doing the defensive and shooting bits at about the same rate. There’s not really a justification for starting Player A over Player B here.

You might have noticed that Jones’ pass OBV numbers aren’t looking so hot. Some of the other ones you might look at to see if someone is a good creative passer aren’t looking so hot either — 11.18 final third passes, 3.39 deep progressions, 0.8 passes into the box, 1 long ball per 90 is a decidedly mid set of passing metrics (basically double all of those to get Martin Ødegaard, Phil Foden, or James Maddison).

But the recent highlights… oh baby, the highlights! Like this assist for Diogo Jota against West Ham in the EFL Cup.

And the one that got me thinking about this post, his incredible through ball to Luis Diaz vs. Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Champions League. This moment turned what was, until this point, a dead even game, into the eventual rout it became. The embedded video should start on the Jones assist to Diaz, but if it doesn’t, that’s at 1:53. (US version here: assist is at 5:51.)

Jones doesn’t necessarily need to add anything to his game in order to be an important player for Liverpool. An elite dribbler who also doesn’t turn the ball over cheaply and pops up with the occasional spectacular assist is going to keep a job at the highest level of the sport for a long time.

More consistent progressive passing is probably what he needs to be the kind of guy who starts for England and racks up individual accolades, though. On the evidence of his last month, he has the capacity to do that.

I know it’s unreasonable to expect anyone to make this kind of evolution in their game, but Jones reminds me a lot of the skillset and playing style that Luka Modrić had at the same age when he was playing for Tottenham. If Jones can become a more consistent passer — which is what midfielders normally improve at as they age — he’s going to be an absolute monster. —KM

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