'Curtis Jones has been outstanding' - Jordan Henderson
An ‘outstanding’ sequence of displays from Curtis Jones has been a major factor behind Liverpool’s recent winning form, Jordan Henderson believes.
Jones produced two excellent finishes to set the Reds on their way to a 3-0 success over Leicester City on Monday night – their seventh consecutive Premier League victory.
The Academy graduate, who was named Player of the Match at King Power Stadium, has started each of his team’s last nine games and also netted the opener in the dramatic 4-3 win against Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield in April.
“He has been outstanding,” Henderson told Liverpoolfc.com.
“Everything that he has been doing with and without the ball: with the ball it speaks for itself, he rarely gives it away, he’s great in tight spaces, a really clever footballer, the goals he scored were outstanding.
“But also the work-rate without the ball has been key over the last few weeks. He is a great athlete, when he loses it or when we lose it he wins the ball back really quickly for us and his counter-press has been brilliant. He has been a really big plus for us over these last few weeks for sure.
“It definitely helps to get a run of games in the team. It’s hard when you are coming in for one game, when you are coming on as a sub and things like that. But Curt has had a good run of games and I think you can see the confidence and how that has helped him these past few weeks, definitely.”
Read the rest of our post-Leicester interview with the captain below.
On the main positive to take from the game…
The clean sheet. I thought the overall performance was really good. First 10 minutes I think was a little bit hectic, we didn’t control it too well, but after that I thought we got hold of the game, created some great chances, played some great stuff and defended really well without the ball. So, a lot of positives to take from the game.
On whether getting the first goal was always going to be vital against a team low on confidence…
I think getting the goal and then just before half-time getting the second one, we could have had a third actually I think just shortly after that so [we were] a little bit disappointed that we didn’t go in with the third one because I think 2-0 can always be a dangerous scoreline, especially at half-time because you know the other team is going to come out and throw everything [at you]. If they get one goal then it’s 2-1 and their crowd can get up and it can change the game and be difficult from there. But I thought the lads controlled the game from that point and Trent’s free-kick wrapped the game up for us really.
On the importance of the clean sheet and the platform not conceding first gives the side…
That’s why the clean sheet is really important for us and the way we defend is important, especially away from home, so we need to keep that going. Hopefully we can win our next two games and see where that takes us.
On keeping up the pressure in the race for Champions League qualification…
Yeah, just concentrate on the performance from ourselves, keep the performance level up and hopefully we can try to win the next two games, which will be tough, and then see where we are at the end of the season.