Lee Carsley on Liverpool's Curtis Jones: "He’s one of the best players I’ve worked with"

Lee Carsley said Curtis Jones is one of the best players he has worked with after selecting the Liverpool midfielder in the England squad for the upcoming international break.

Jones is yet to make a senior appearance for his country, despite being included in two previous squads, but could finally make his debut this month. Carsley and his players travel to Athens to face Greece on Thursday 14 November before welcoming Ireland to Wembley three days later.

Jones, is familiar to Carsley from the England Under-21 team, and the interim first-team manager was full of praise for Jones as he explained his decision to include the 23-year-old in the squad.

"Curtis is an all-round player," Carsley said in a press conference on Thursday. "He plays in various positions and he’s a player I highly rate. He’s probably one of the best players I’ve worked with in terms of his ability.

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"He’s shown a real consistent level of performance, playing every week, now. Most weeks he’s at a really high level and he’s shown he can score goals. He’s a player we’ve had a lot of success with working in the past."

Jones has operated at a high level under Arne Slot at Liverpool, performing particularly well since the October international break. The youngster earned plaudits for his impressive performances in wins against Chelsea and Bayer Leverkusen at Anfield, and will hope to take that form onto the international stage.

Jones was called up to a senior squad for the first time earlier this year, when Gareth Southgate named him in England's provisional squad for Euro 2024. However, he was an unused substitute in a warm-up game against Bosnia before leaving the camp after being omitted from the final 26-man tournament squad.

Injury ruled Jones out of selection contention for Carsley's first England squad in September, before he was called up for the October break. However, he was an unused substitute for the Three Lions' chaotic defeat by Greece before leaving the squad for personal reasons ahead of the win against Finland.

England will likely need to win both of its games against Greece and Ireland to have a chance of earning automatic promotion from Nations League B.

Carsley's men currently sit second in group, three points behind Greece, which has collected maximum points from four games so far after upsetting England at Wembley. The winners of the group go up automatically, while the runners-up will face a two-legged play-off to gain promotion back to Nations League A.