Press conferenceCurtis Jones on mindset change, leadership, midfield role and more

The 22-year-old recently reached the milestone of 100 senior games for the Reds, having made his debut as a teenager back in January 2019.

After overcoming a series of injury issues at the beginning of the 2022-23 season, Jones found himself playing regularly towards the end of the campaign. He impressed when doing so, before helping England win the U21 European Championship in the summer, and has continued that impressive form into this season.

Speaking at a press conference before Liverpool’s Europa League game with Toulouse on Thursday night, the Reds’ No.17 detailed the work that has underpinned his progress.

He said: “As an academy kid I was always a kid who jumped up the age groups. Then I came into the first team and I kind of felt like I hit a wall, and I couldn’t really take the next step.

“So it was more just going over my game and seeing where the improvements were. I’ve always been a lad who just wanted to go and score goals and pick up the ball and run, you know. But it was at the point where then I learned, ‘OK, there’s more the gaffer and staff want.’

“Now the fans are all saying about how I go and press. I’ve never been a kid who thought about being the first one to go and press or to try to run the most, so I’ve added that in my game. I’m trying to work on just the overall package.

“I’ve still got a lot of things to learn, but I’m getting there.”

Read on for more from Jones’ pre-Toulouse press conference at Anfield…

On the competition for places at Liverpool…

It’s Liverpool at the end of the day, so the competition is always tough. I came around the team when I was 17 and the competition then was [Gini] Wijnaldum, [Jordan] Henderson, [Naby] Keita, [Alex Oxlade] Chamberlain. It’s always been a world-class team. I’m at the point now where it’s changing a bit, there’s younger lads in there. It’s freshened up, it’s changed around, but it’s still going to be [a place where] if you’re a centre mid who is playing well, of course you know you’re keeping your place, and if not then of course it’s going to get changed around. The competition is good, it’s healthy. We’re bonding well as a team, that’s the important thing.

I think it’s as simple as: if you play well then you keep your place. If I’m not playing well they can change the team around. If Dom [Szoboszlai] isn’t playing, or whoever isn’t having a good game, you can always change. That’s the club, it’s a world-class club, it attracts lads who want to come and play. It attracts the best ones, and if you’ve got a squad full of lads who can change the game, then if one isn’t having a good game then you can change it round. That’s just what it is.

On coming back stronger after injury…

I had a time where I was out for, I think it was 15 weeks or something, and it was [all about] the hunger I had in me to come back and play. At the time, the team wasn’t in its best phase or spell, you could say. There were times when I was at home or at the stadium and I saw the chance to come into the team and help. I just worked hard. My frame of mind changed, and I matured as well. I came back and I was fortunate enough to help with goals and assists, but more importantly I just needed the games. I had times when I was out for a while, I’d come back and maybe have two or three games, then I was out of the team again. But the most important thing that I had at the end of the season was that I was playing game after game after game.

On the Reds’ upcoming schedule…

It’s each game at a time, I’d say. Of course there’ll be times when we’re changing the team around, but the lads that have come into the team for the competitions were doing the job in each game. The Premier League team is not going to be the exact same team as here, and the cup games. But as the fans have seen, we can change the team around and still win games. That’s the important thing.

On the importance of the U21 Euros…

Yeah, 100 per cent. It helped loads. The coaching staff there and the players helped me. But it was more just the run at the end of the season that I had. I came in the team, I was scoring goals, assisting.

I think I had 12 games [consecutively]. I came in, I had a buzz about me, a confidence. I went in there and I was myself and yeah, I was fortunate enough to make the team of the tournament and I actually scored the goal [in the final] apparently! Or I got the goal, anyway! It was a good tournament and I’m just carrying on the form.

On captaining Liverpool against Leicester City recently…

It’s a tough one, if I’m honest, because I’ve always been the younger kid. But I’m at the point now where there’s kids coming in and I’m kind of having a conversation with them [like] I was having with a Hendo, a [James] Milner and even a Trent [Alexander-Arnold]. It’s about helping out the kids as well. It’s good to have the armband on me and to be captain, but every time at the training ground I always try to be a leader in my own way.