7 months ago
116 Jurgen Klopp has now admitted he was shocked by how tired one Liverpool player looked in the 3-0 defeat to Atalanta.
Liverpool’s 2023/24 campaign took a turn for the worst on Thursday night as the Italian side all but knocked the Reds out of the UEFA Europa League – barring another remarkable comeback in Europe.
It was an incredibly strange performance against Liverpool, in which everybody in red lacked any urgency, and put little pressure on Atalanta out of possession.
While each and every Liverpool player involved could be accused of looking tired, there was one who Jurgen Klopp was particularly surprised by in terms of sharpness…
Jurgen Klopp shocked by Curtis Jones
Well, it was Curtis Jones who surprised the 56-year-old with his performance.
Klopp admitted that – even after 20 minutes – he felt the Liverpool No.17 was showing clear signs of struggling to deal with Atalanta’s style of play.
The Liverpool Echo quote the German as saying: “You saw Curtis, who was, for the most part of the season, the fittest player, pressed for 90 minutes like crazy.
“Today, after 20 minutes he was 100% surprised, I was surprised as well. Oh look, he feels the intensity already (he thought at the time).”
Jones lasted just 45 minutes before Klopp decided to withdraw the 23-year-old at the interval, along with Harvey Elliott and Kostas Tsimikas.
Judging by the statistics, the Liverpool academy graduate really did struggle to lay a glove on Atalanta.
23-year-old struggled tremendously against Atalanta
As Klopp states, Jones is usually one of the more intense players at Liverpool.
However – whether it was down to fatigue or something else – the England U21 international was not at the races on Thursday.
WhoScored shows that Jones failed to make a single defensive contribution with zero tackles, zero interceptions and zero clearances to his name, while also failing to make a block or even a foul.
In possession, the Liverpool-born midfielder only had one shot, which was off target, and one key pass to show for his 45 minutes on the pitch, while also taking one unsuccessful touch which saw him dispossessed.
Hopefully, this display can act as a wake up call for Jones heading into the final games of the season, as more performances like this will not stand him in good stead with the new boss once Klopp departs.
By the sounds of it, that new boss could well be Ruben Amorim…
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