‘Stay with this kid’ – Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard reveals the candid message he sent to Jurgen Klopp about the Liverpool youngster 

‘Stay with this kid’ – Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard reveals the candid message he sent to Jurgen Klopp about the Liverpool youngster

Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard described a conversation with manager Jurgen Klopp about Curtis Jones

Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard has revealed that he told Jurgen Klopp to stay with Reds youngster Curtis Jones.

The midfielder has taken pride of place in recent weeks as his inclusion coincided with a run of seven wins, nine unbeaten, to secure European qualification next season.

Jones has blossomed following the introduction of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s new role, including supporting him in Liverpool’s 3-1 win over Leicester City earlier this month. There was caution in the selection of the 22-year-old after the playmaker suffered a series of injuries which saw his playing time monitored by medical staff at the AXA Training Centre.

“I used to make it personal with my teammates to make sure I was the best. No one coached me, no one did better than me day to day because then I could look a coach in the eye and say ‘no’ I deserve to play in this team because I have shown you every day or most days that I am the best player” the former Reds captain told The Anfield Wrap.

“That’s the mentality you need at Liverpool, otherwise you won’t last long or you won’t play enough. I know [Curtis Jones] has that [mentality],” he added.

“I remember having a conversation with Jurgen and we were talking about Curtis and he said ‘yeah, there are some little things we need to improve in some areas’ and stuff like that.

“I said ‘yeah I get that and obviously you’ve all seen him a lot more than me because he was spending more time at Melwood at the time,’ but I said ‘stay with this kid, whatever you’re thinking keep him and stay with him because he won’t let you down’.

“Once you get him right and you’ve fixed the few little things that you need to fix, he won’t let you down, he’ll be there for you. I think he’s showing Jurgen that now.”

Jones has fired his name into the conversation for a place in the starting 11 next season as the Reds plot a busy summer of additions with Alexis Mac Allister among those. James Milner, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will depart at the end of the season when their contracts expire leaving a number of roles to be filled.

Also..

Premier League dirtiest teams ranked as Liverpool, Man Utd and Arsenal fall outside top 5

Several Premier League sides haven’t received a red card all season, but there’s a gap between the dirtiest teams and the rest of the competition.

With the Premier League season nearing its final weekend and things still hanging in the balance, tempers could be heating up ahead of the final.

No player in the competition received more than 11 yellow cards last season, but that number has already been exceeded with playing time. to avoid penalties, while several teams have yet to see a player released after all 20 had at least one red card last season.

Before the final round of play, Mirror Football looked at who was the cleanest and who was the dirtiest in the league. We have assigned a score to each team, with one point for yellow and two for red, based on figures from the official Premier League website. 20. West Ham, 43 points (43+0)

West Ham received three red cards last season, the first of which came in just the fourth game of the season. However, this season they have clean sheets and no team has fewer yellow cards.
19.Manchester City, 45 (43+2)

Manchester City’s only sending off came in November, when Joao Cancelo was sent off for a foul on Fulham’s Harry Wilson. The defending champions still found a way to win that game, thanks to an effort from Erling Haaland in second half stoppage time.
18. Arsenal, 52 (52+0)

It won’t be much consolation for Arsenal after their failed title bid, but they are one game away from a full season without a red card. Last season, that dream ended in two-and-a-half games when Granit Xhaka ran red against Manchester City in a 5-0 defeat.
16=. Brentford, 53 (51+2)

Brentford have only received one red card, and that’s for two yellow cards. Shandon Baptiste was the unlucky man to get his marching orders at the last minute of a draw against Leicester.

16=. Brighton, 53 (53+0)

High-flying Brighton have avoided a dismissal, though they have averaged more than one and a half yellows

16=. Brighton, 53 (53+0)

High-flying Brighton have avoided a dismissal, though they have averaged more than one and a half yellows per game. Moises Caicedo leads the way in that department with nine bookings, while his fellow in-demand midfielder Alexis Mac Allister has eight.

15. Liverpool, 57 (55+2)

Liverpool’s first red card of the season came very early in the campaign, with Darwin Nunez shown a straight red against Crystal Palace. The Reds have been well-behaved since, though.

14. Leicester, 62 (58+4)

Leicester’s struggles haven’t been exclusively down to their disciplinary record, but the two red cards haven’t helped. While the game against Chelsea was already lost before Wout Faes’ dismissal, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s sending-off against Aston Villa was more damaging after the visitors’ late winner against 10 men.

13. Newcastle, 62 (62+2)

Leicester’s opponents on Monday night went into the game close to their opponents in this table, albeit far away in the real one. Nick Pope’s red against Liverpool cost the keeper a chance to play at Wembley in the Carabao Cup final, though another red – for Kieran Trippier against Man City – was downgraded to a yellow.

12. Bournemouth, 66 (66+0)

Bournemouth have dug deep to preserve their Premier League status, and have done so without a single red card. They’ve had some 66 yellows, though, with a high of four in their defeats against Crystal Palace and Aston Villa.

11. Southampton, 73 (73+0)

Relegated Southampton can at least salvage some pride by going down without a red card. Three yellows in the final game against Liverpool. however, would see them average exactly two yellows per match.

10. Aston Villa, 78 (76+2)

Villa picked up three red cards last season, but have brought that down to one this term while recording a similar number of yellows. Liverpool fans will feel it should be at least two, though, after the controversy involving Tyrone Mings’ challenge on Cody Gakpo.

Both of Manchester United’s red cards this season have gone to Casemiro, with the Brazilian dismissed against Crystal Palace and Southampton. The former Real Madrid man is also the only player with two Premier League reds this term.

8=. Fulham, 80 (78+2)

Fulham picked up multiple reds in their FA Cup elimination against Man Utd, but just one in the league. That went the way of Nathaniel Chalobah, now at West Brom, who was sent off when Marco Silva’s side lost to Newcastle in October.

7. Tottenham, 81 (75+6)

In a strange quirk, all three of Spurs’ dismissals this term have seen them lose a member of their South American contingent. Emerson Royal was sent off against Arsenal, Cristian Romero against Man City and, finally, Lucas Moura in the draw with Everton.

4=. Chelsea, 82 (76+6)

Chelsea’s season didn’t get off to the best of starts, with Kalidou Koulibaly and Conor Gallagher both handed red card suspensions before the end of August. The Blues made several new additions in January in an effort to salvage their season, but one of them – Portugal forward Joao Felix – was dismissed just 58 minutes into his debut.

4=. Everton, 82 (78+4)

Everton picked up six red cards last season, so the good news is that they’ve reduced that number, though their yellow card tally is exactly the same as last term with a game remaining. Abdoulaye Doucoure earned one of this season’s, in an April game which also saw Spurs’ Lucas sent off, while Mason Holgate earned two yellows against Crystal Palace later in the same month.

4=. Nottingham Forest (82+0)

No team has more yellows without a red this season than Forest, who average more than two per game. Steve Cooper’s side have been sharing the cards around, though Renan Lodi and Neco Williams lead the way at club level with seven apiece.

3. Crystal Palace, 86 (80+6)

After only seeing one player dismissed last season, Palace have upped the tally to three this term. Summer signing Cheick Doucoure picked up one of the reds, against Aston Villa in March, with Tyrick Mitchell and James Tomkins the other culprits – both in the Boxing Day defeat against Fulham.

2. Leeds, 87 (81+6)

Leeds had more yellows than anyone else in the league last season, so have at least improved in that regard. Two of this season’s dismissals have gone to summer signings – Luis Sinisterra against Aston Villa and Tyler Adams against Spurs – while Junior Firpo completed the set with his second booking in the recent draw with Newcastle.

1. Wolves, 96 (84+12)

The stats aren’t pretty for Wolves, who have twice as many reds as any other Premier League side. At least one will feel harsh, with manager Julen Lopetegui furious with the dismissal of Mario Lemina against Southampton, and Lemina’s fellow summer signing Diego Costa was also one of six separate recipients of an early bath this season.