Curtis Jones didn’t sugarcoat Liverpool’s first-half performance in their 3-3 draw against Newcastle on Wednesday night.
The Reds trailed 1-0 at the interval and, in all honesty, that scoreline was a fair reflection on how the first 45 minutes had unfolded at St James’ Park.
However, the midfielder equalised shortly after the break, the first of five goals in a pulsating second half during which both teams led before the spoils were eventually shared.
Jones gives blunt first-half verdict
Speaking to liverpoolfc.com afterwards, Jones pulled no punches in assessing his team’s first-half display, although he was pleased with how they responded after the interval.
The 23-year-old said: “It’s simple. I think the first half was poor and the second half was good. We got our goals, we had all the ball and dominated. It’s simple. We’ll take our point and move on.”
The midfielder added: “The first half was tough. We were terrible and then we upped it in the second half…I think in the first half we were sloppy. We were slow, lost a load of duels and we picked up soft [yellow] cards. That just shows you’re a little bit slow in your tackles. It’s one of them days.”
Curtis Jones was scathing of Liverpool's first half performance against Newcastle
(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
A fair and honest assessment from Jones
Liverpool fans will surely appreciate Jones’ honesty in acknowleding that the Reds were far short of their usual standards during the first half in particular at St James’ Park.
Newcastle had been the better team even before Alexander Isak’s thunderbolt finish, with a half-time xG of 0.89 to 0.25 in their favour indicating as much, and they had almost twice as many shots as the visitors (9 v 5) in the opening 45 minutes (Sofascore).
Far too often before the interval, Slot’s team struggled to get out of their own half of the pitch, but at least there was an improvement thereafter as they netted three times but still relinquished two points late on.
Jones marked his 150th Liverpool appearance with his 18th goal for the club, and he was one of the Reds’ better performers on the night. As per Sofascore, he misplaced just two of his 57 passes (96% success rate) and won seven out of 11 duels, along with completing 100% of his dribbles and making one key pass.
LFC can’t afford such a lethargic first-half display in the derby on Saturday, but when we’re coming away from Newcastle with a result despite being nowhere near our best and still seven points clear at the top of the Premier League, it’s not the worst scenario in which to find ourselves.