Arne Slot could soon unleash extra midfield option who is ideal for exciting Liverpool plan
Whenever you make nine changes to a starting XI, it is always going to take some time for things to click into place. That's what we saw against West Ham United in midweek — eventually, Liverpool won comfortably to book a fourth-round tie against Brighton.
As well as the sheer volume of alterations to Arne Slot's line-up, several players including Wataru Endo and Joe Gomez were making their first starts of the season. Liverpool looked disjointed for a while but in the end, won at a canter.
"We like to have the ball, we don’t like the other team to have the ball… but the Premier League is a league where many good clubs are and many clubs want to have the ball, so we have to fight really hard," Slot explained to the Reds' official website ahead of the opening day victory over Ipswich Town.
Wolves camp hit by virus before Liverpool game as Arne Slot's men could face academy players EXCLUSIVE: 'Liverpool should have one contract priority above all else - and it isn't Trent Alexander-Arnold'
"And if we have it, we want to score, we want to be intense in everything we do. If we have the ball, we want to score — that’s quite simple of course! We want to be intense in everything we do."
So far, that has largely been achieved. There are two caveats — that Liverpool lost at home to Nottingham Forest, and that it is yet to face a major test like Manchester City or Arsenal — but there has been control and the blueprint is clear. That will be the plan against Wolves this Saturday too.
"Maybe the only slight difference there is, is that after we win the ball, I like to go forward just as Jurgen Klopp liked it, but I sometimes like it when players try to keep the ball and not play the difficult ball, where Jurgen or the former regime maybe liked the chaotic scenes in and around the 16 a lot as well," Slot continued.
"They were really, really, really successful with that for so many years. But it sometimes also depends a bit on the players you have. I think we’re trying to find the balance between trying to create chaos at certain moments and trying to keep possession of the ball a bit longer in other moments."
Curtis Jones, another to be making his first start of the campaign on Wednesday, fits that kind of style perfectly. The 23-year-old has been around the first team for a while now but he is a completely different player now than when he first broke through.
Where once he would have been the team's chief risk-taker, he is now someone who rarely gives it away — sometimes to the point that he frustrates by holding onto possession for too long waiting for the right pass to present itself.
In some ways, losing the free-flowing attacking instincts is a shame. But as Jones fights for minutes on the pitch, his main barrier up to this point in his senior career has been injuries more than anything else.
He is a much more rounded player than he was a couple of years ago. And as he goes in search of a position in a midfield so far dominated by Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai so far under Slot, being able to play in any of the three roles can only be a positive thing.
Jones played mainly as a number eight against West Ham but then moved into the number 10 role later in the game. And when he was able to break forward from the midfield area more often, that is when he was at his most dangerous.
But he can also play as a number six if he needs to. And with Gravenberch the only elite player in that position on the Liverpool roster right now, it can't be ruled out that he might need to spend a spell in that role at some point.
Jones hasn't made the start to the season that he would have wanted in terms of minutes, held back once more by an ill-timed injury setback. Before long, though, he will get more chances. As someone who can play in each of the three midfield roles, he could soon make himself the most useful player that Slot can call upon as the fixtures continue to pile up thick and fast.