Jay Spearing says 'exceptional' Liverpool star has 'played himself into the team' and could spark formation change

Arne Slot will be hoping that the break from the Premier League has been the reset needed to kick-start a season that was in danger of falling apart.

Despite losing Alexander Isak and Jeremie Frimpong through injury and Ryan Gravenberch missing out too, the Reds looked as well organised as they have done all season with a series of successful partnerships across the pitch. The defence, midfield, attack, all singing off the same song sheet.

Curtis Jones has earned his place for Liverpool

In Gravenberch’s absence, a player who has largely escaped criticism this season, it was Curtis Jones who was entrusted with the deep lying playmaker role. Barely missing a pass all night Jones was near faultless in possession as he moved the pieces around the chess board to open Frankfurt up. He faces a fight to keep his place in the team, but he has a supporter within the club who thinks he should be in the starting XI to face Brentford:

Speaking to The Official Liverpool FC Podcast, academy player-coach Jay Spearing picked out how well Jones dove-tailed with Szoboszlai and classed it as ‘elite’.

Spearing said: “Yeah, I think, you know, for me, I think if you look at a few individuals, I think they’ve played well this season. I think Curtis has probably played himself into the team. And I thought he was exceptional tonight. I thought him and Dominik Szoboszlai controlled the whole game. I thought the levels that they played that were well above, you know, they were Champions League elite for me.”

In a team that hasn’t looked very secure recently, even Jones himself spoke about a lack of control and games resembling basketball in terms of their end to end nature, the midfield is key. Slot has consistently preferred to play with two sitters or a double pivot with a more attack-minded no.10 or attacking midfielder. What this means is that three doesn’t go into two and a decision has to be made between Jones, Szoboszlai and Gravenberch as to who starts.

How Slot could change Liverpool shape and system

It doesn’t have to be like this though. A subtle change in shape could make all the difference domestically where physicality is key, it would also provide greater control and protection of the defence in games when it is needed.

There would still be room for Florian Wirtz too who could start either on the left or behind a more flexible front two. The recruitment has been good, however, it doesn’t look like players have been bought for a specific system. Slot needs to fight the urge to play square pegs in round holes now that he has an embarrassment of riches in the forward line. As Arsenal are proving, clean sheets make it an awful lot easier to win games.

The strongest attack probably features Cody Gakpo, Mo Salah and Hugo Ekitike in terms of balance, this doesn’t mean that there is no place for Wirtz though. The £116m signing needs to adapt though because he isn’t always going to get as much space as he got against Frankfurt. Slot has a decision to make; score more goals than the opposition or a more pragmatic approach that doesn’t see the summer’s record signings having the team built around them.