Liverpool face Everton in the re-arranged Merseyside derby on Wednesday night looking to bounce back after their surprise FA Cup defeat to Championship strugglers Plymouth Argyle at the weekend
Liverpool have been boosted with Curtis Jones set to return for the Merseyside derby against Everton on Wednesday night
The England international was an unused substitute during the Reds’ unexpected FA Cup defeat by Plymouth Argyle on Sunday, following his recent recovery from a knee injury.
Kop boss Arne Slot revealed he had planned to start Jones against the Pilgrims, but the England international pulled out of the lineup on the morning of the match. It was something of a surprise, given Jones previously made a significant contribution as a substitute in Liverpool’s 2-0 win at Bournemouth earlier in the month, and then played 72 minutes in the team’s dominant 4-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur last week.
Despite not featuring against Plymouth, Slot has dismissed any worries about the 24 year old’s fitness, who missed games with Ipswich Town and PSV Eindhoven after being substituted at halftime against Lille last month.
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“Yeah, (he will be available on Wednesday),” Slot confirmed. “He was out for 10, 12 days and he played a game at home against Tottenham. His recovery took a bit longer than expected.”
Slot rotated heavily for the Plymouth clash, retaining only Caoimhin Kelleher from the Spurs win, while leaving 11 first-team players, including the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold, out of the squad. The Dutchman has revealed he’s planning significant changes for the upcoming match against Everton, after addressing his team’s shock loss to Plymouth, while noting the fierce criticism from sections of the Dutch media.
“They called it a…they had some strong words so I assume the English media said similar things. I can only agree with that. I had the same emotions. It was a very, very disappointing result.”
He shared his intentions regarding selection: “Maybe not the emotion because the players that were on the pitch will be – maybe one or two of them – but the rest will not start. I don’t think the ones who stayed behind have the same emotions of the ones that lost. Although of course the ones that stayed behind were very disappointed as well because we are here to compete for every trophy. Now one of them is gone so everybody was disappointed.”
He reflected on previous disappointments: “Every time that these players that played the game against Plymouth came in, they’ve done really well but it is not the first time we had a disappointing result when they all played together because PSV Eindhoven was the same.”
He further analysed the team dynamics: “There is a big difference coming into a team that has a certain structure and has played so many times together and then one or two players coming in can have a big impact.”
Lastly, he examined the drawbacks of making too many squad alterations: “It’s clear if you change so many players that there is not as much structure and cohesion as the ones that played together. But still, I assumed and that’s the wrong interpretation that I made, that these players were – without having the same cohesion – good enough to win from Plymouth.”
“My idea was to start with Curtis Jones and have Joe Gomez longer available and all of a sudden they weren’t and Darwin was not able to play more than half an hour.”
“We dropped a bit maybe too much in quality compared to what we could have brought on the pitch. It still should have been more than enough to win against Plymouth but it wasn’t.”
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