Liverpool have seen many great midfielders come through their club.
From Graeme Souness to Steven Gerrard, the Merseyside club have been blessed with talent in the middle of the park and that has not changed.
Arne Slot’s current midfielder trio of Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai is arguably the best in the Premer League and coming up behind them is Curtis Jones.
Jones believes he has taken a step forward under Slot this season at Anfield and will look to continue that into next season to become a regular in the Dutch coach’s starting 11.
The 24-year-old has all the talent to do this but at the highest level that is not enough. What separates the good from the great is their work ethic and mindset.
Jones received a setback in his Liverpool career this week with his penalty miss against Paris Saint-Germain, but the midfielder’s reaction to it has been quite impressive.
Photo by Richard Martin-Roberts - CameraSport/CameraSport via Getty Images
Photo by Richard Martin-Roberts – CameraSport/CameraSport via Getty Images
Curtis Jones’ impressive reaction to PSG penalty miss
Liverpool’s players were under pressure during their penalty shootout with PSG on Tuesday the second Darwin Nunez had his kick saved.
The next player to step up knew that he could not afford to miss and unfortunately for Jones, he was the designated taker after the Uruguayan star.
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Jones would see his penalty saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma and with it, the Reds were on the brink of elimination.
Harvey Elliott expects Jones to bounce back from the setback and going off his attitude towards the miss, the 24-year-old certainly will.
“I went home and slept fine. I see it as part of my journey,” Jones told The Athletic regarding how he felt after missing his penalty. “I’m a confident lad and I’ve got trust in myself. My attitude is that I want the team to rely on me. That comes with risk and the possibility of failure.
“There will be times when it’s me taking the last shot at the end of a game or picking up the ball and running at them. There will be times when it goes well, other times when I get caught in possession or miss a penalty, like Tuesday night.
“That comes with who I want to be. I don’t just want to be seen as a guy who coasts around in games or is happy just to be there and part of the team. I want to be seen as a lad who is a big part of things. I have to step up with that weight on my shoulders.
“You see all the greats around the world in sport. There are times when they succeed, times when they fail. But they are great because they do it again and again. You have got to be fine with missing. I’m fine if I go up there and I miss, but I’m not fine if I’m driving home knowing I was too scared to take a penalty.”
Liverpool greatness awaits Curtis Jones
This next part in Jones’ career is going to be crucial as the 24-year-old has to work his way into becoming a nailed-on starter in Slot’s team.
Should he achieve this next season, the midfielder has the potential to be a great at Liverpool as the mentality he has shown after his PSG miss is not found in every footballer.
Real Madrid are heavily pursuing Trent Alexander-Arnold ahead of the summer and many expect the right-back to make the move to Spain. This will place more pressure on Jones as the midfielder will be the only scouser viewed as a key player in the Liverpool squad.
Jones has all the talent to reach the next level and has shown it on several occasions this season, with Ally McCoist describing his part in the Merseyside Derby as “excellent”. Slot and Thomas Tuchel see this, which is why both coaches have put faith in the 24-year-old.
The midfielder will be given chances throughout 2025 and it is now up to the player if he wants to be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Gerrard and Souness.