Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones has revealed how some ‘harsh truths’ from Anfield legend Steven Gerrard helped grow his Liverpool career.
As an academy graduate Jones worked with Gerrard while the Liverpool legend was working with the under 18’s at the club and the 22-year-old has credited the Al-Ettifaq manager with developing his career.
Jones has gone on to appear regularly for the Anfield club, amassing 106 appearances, 11 goals and 11 assists.
How Did Steven Gerrard Help Curtis Jones’ Liverpool Career?
Speaking on the We Are Liverpool podcast to hosts Peter McDowall and Jan Molby, Jones said: “He helped me out loads. I say it now, still, I feel like Steven [Gerrard] was the one who came in and like made me really, really think, ‘look, if I lock all the way in, now I can go to the top’. I always knew I had the ability but as a young kid in the academy the staff are always on top of you and like, ‘look you can do this, you can do that. You’re always going to play’.
“At the same time, all your mates are there and that as well. So you’re coming in and doing well but then you’re also having a laugh. You don’t understand, ‘if I do this and do that, I’m not that far away from the first team’.
“It was Steven who was the one who really came in. I’ll never forget the time, we’d been away on pre-season – I don’t know what country it was – we came back and he got the whole team in on a one-to-one and he’d been speaking about the things you did well and what you needed to improve. I remember when he came in – I don’t want to say what he said – it was good but it was not nice. It wasn’t nice. It was like the harsh truths.
Curtis Jones on Gerrard. You can really see this season he’s starting to put it all together. #lfc pic.twitter.com/57z7sjSMhe
— The Kop Watch (@TheKopWatch) November 21, 2023
“I’ll say a little bit: ‘I gave you the 10 shirt on your back because I want you to be my main lad in my team and I want to build the team around you, but you didn’t show enough’.”
Jones continued: “There was a game that he said, this is was what stuck in my head a lot – where I wanted to show him that anything you need from me I’ll do it – we’d been beaten by Fulham and he said I’d been tackled and the lad had stood over and said something while I’d been on the floor.
“He turned around to me and said, ‘what did you do about it?!’ I said, ‘I can’t remember’, and he said, ‘well, I’ll tell you, you did nothing!’
“I sat there and thought, ‘you’re right’. This is my club, there are people like you who have played your whole life here and even came back to the academy and now you’re a coach, you want to give your all to the club. There are people like me, I’m a Scouser myself, I don’t understand the situation I’m in. I need to grow up here and need to be a man.
“Just after that, we built a connection to where he saw ‘okay, he’s willing to go out here and work’. We built a connection. It wasn’t always good – to where he was telling me off. I took it on board and done it. That’s why I say he was a massive, massive part of it because he wasn’t afraid to tell me when I was wrong.
“At the same time, he’d tell me when I was doing well.”
Jones’ Liverpool side face Manchester City this weekend in what is being touted as an early-season title clash.
Manchester City Vs Liverpool Odds
- Match Odds: Manchester City: 7/10 | Draw: 7/2 | Liverpool: 18/5
- Total Goals: Over 2.5: 11/25 | Under 2.5: 7/4
- Both Teams To Score: Yes: 1/2 | No: 6/4
Looking for a live stream for this huge Premier League clash? Follow the link for our guide on how you can follow a Manchester City vs Liverpool live stream, courtesy of bet365.
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