{"id":317231,"date":"2025-12-15T13:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T13:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/317231\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T13:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T13:23:10","slug":"explains-why-he-slows-down-lfc-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/317231\/","title":{"rendered":"Explains Why He Slows Down LFC Play"},"content":{"rendered":"

Curtis Jones<\/a> is often criticised for slowing down play and holding onto the ball, but the Liverpool midfielder has explained his approach, saying: \u201cI don\u2019t want to be in a rush.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones is known for being comfortable on the ball. In fact, of players to feature in 10 or more Premier League<\/a> games this season, only seven take more touches per 90 minutes, per FBref<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Scouser averages 85.9 touches per 90, the most of any midfielder and behind only William Saliba (94), Lewis Dunk (90.5), Virgil van Dijk<\/a> (90), Joachim Andersen (87.9), Trevoh Chalobah (87.5), Matheus Nunes (86.9) and Jan Paul van Hecke (86.4).<\/p>\n

While this could be viewed as a positive, it is also an area that attracts a lot of criticism for Liverpool\u2019s No. 17.<\/p>\n

Curtis Jones: \u2018You have to do an awful lot to take the ball off me\u2019<\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just one of them who loves to play, I just enjoy having the ball at my feet,\u201d Jones told the club\u2019s official website<\/a> after Saturday\u2019s 2-0 win over Brighton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve obviously heard that there\u2019s criticism at times that I don\u2019t move the ball quick enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just because I\u2019m comfortable on the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be in a rush and then I give a ball to a lad who is not as comfortable as me on the ball and he is kind of in a little bit of a challenge and then he gets the blame.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d rather just take it on me and know that a lad who comes to press me is going to have to do an awful lot to take the ball off me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones is one of those to benefit from Arne Slot<\/a>\u2018s latest tactical shakeup, and on Saturday that often saw him drop into the deepest midfield role to maximise his value in possession.<\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

It also requires the 24-year-old to commit himself defensively which, as he continued his interview, Jones showed he is willing to do so knowing a clean sheet is priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I look around at the lads in the team, I know that these guys are going to score and assist and help with the goals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the guys at the back and in central midfield can run more and fight even harder to come away with a clean sheet, there\u2019s no doubt that we\u2019ll start to win more games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slot has now started Jones in each of the last three games, and bar four missed due to injury this season he has featured in every game he has been available for.<\/p>\n

If there were any internal issues with the way he slows down the tempo, that would almost certainly not be the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Curtis Jones is often criticised for slowing down play and holding onto the ball, but the Liverpool midfielder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2231,218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-317231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-curtis-jones","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}