Curtis Jones receives new challenge from manager Slot after his impressive performances for Liverpool recently.
Curtis Jones needs to add consistency to his game because “the best players in the world show up every three days”, says his manager Arne Slot.
Jones has recently been playing well, scoring in a league victory against Chelsea and setting up Luis Diaz for a goal in Tuesday’s 4-0 Champions League victory over Bayer Leverkusen.
He has been called up to the England team once more for the November games. At the previous England camp, the uncapped 23-year-old was selected as an injury substitute, but he withdrew due to the birth of his daughter.
“With Curtis maybe it’s not me who did it because he became a father and I had nothing to do with that,” said Slot.
“You never know if that plays a part or not but, since the moment he became a father, he started putting great performances in.
“He did it in pre-season but then his performances dropped a little bit. Since he became a father, he’s outstanding again. It might have to do a bit with that but, in general, I think it has to do with how the team plays.”
Jones said in the summer that Slot’s style of play was ideal for him “because I can get on the ball more and be free” when the Dutchman took over as manager of Liverpool from Jurgen Klopp.
“He has a lot of quality on the ball,” added Slot. “He’s never afraid to do something special with it. Sometimes that leads to situations when, in my opinion, he touched that ball a bit too much because sometimes he’s a bit too over-confident.
“He combines this with an incredibly hard work-rate and we can trust him in defence. He’s quite complete but for him now it’s all about consistency. The best players in the world show up every three days.”