Curtis Jones has insisted he wasn’t criticizing Jurgen Klopp when he suggested he preferred playing under Arne Slot at Liverpool earlier in the season.
The midfielder raised some eyebrows with his comments during pre-season, when – just weeks into Slot’s reign as the Reds’ head coach – he told reporters he was “probably the happiest I’ve been” at the club.
“It’s always been a hard time, coming around the team as a young lad and I always had a certain way of playing but I had to adapt and change,” Jones said last summer. “But that was part of the plan and it was something I can do. But I feel this is more me, I can get on the ball more. I’m excited.”
Jones’ comments were interpreted in some quarters as the academy graduate suggesting that Klopp’s style had been too direct. Although the 24-year-old went on to try and clarify his comments, he would end up doubling down on them a few months later when he insisted Slot’s style of play suited him more.
Now, in an interview with The Athletic, Jones addressed his comments once again, and insisted he never meant to throw any shade at his former boss.
“It definitely wasn’t a dig at Jurgen,” Jones said. “I owe him so much. Jurgen changed me from a boy to a man. There were times when I thought I’d need a loan spell to get more game time but he kept me around the team.
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“It wasn’t always as easy as I would have wanted it to be because I’m a lad who wants to play. Jurgen made me understand the game a lot more from being a kid at the academy who was scoring and assisting all the time and didn’t really have to run. I could do whatever I wanted.
“The next step was to keep that ability but change stuff like passing the ball even more and the work off the ball. I wasn’t always the best kid, but I wasn’t arrogant or cocky. I just wanted the best for myself. He was the man who made me understand so much.”
Jones has already matched his best season at Liverpool in terms of appearances in the current campaign with 10 games still go, including tomorrow’s Carabao Cup final against Newcastle at Wembley. Not only that, but the midfielder was handed his senior international debut for England back in November, and he has earned another call-up for Thomas Tuchel’s first squad.
