What Liverpool fans sang in 38th minute might have to change after Curtis Jones makes statement

Blood Red: Match In Pictures | Leicester City 0-3 Liverpool

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The clock told us we had watched 38 minutes of this game at the King Power when the Liverpool supporters in the away end began to dust off a familiar refrain.

“The Scouser in our team, the Scouser in our team,” they roared. But while the object of their affection was Trent Alexander-Arnold, their two-goal star Curtis Jones might reasonably have expected it to have been about him this time.

Who could blame him if so? This, after all, is currently Jones’s best ever run in the Liverpool first team having started nine successive games under Jurgen Klopp. His resurgence has been one of the many feel-good stories of recent weeks.

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After initially helping steady the ship for an embattled midfield at the start of April with some measured, mature and understated performances, the Academy graduate has started to really flourish of late, playing with the sort of creative freedom that helped make him a member of Klopp’s squad to begin with.

His first-half goals here in this convincing and polished 3-0 victory were dispatched with aplomb to help Liverpool to another three points against Leicester and keep the heat on both Manchester United and Newcastle in the race for Champions League qualification. It’s now three in four games for Jones who looks to have given his manager a sizable portion of food for thought as he plots his midfield renovation this coming transfer window.

Jones’s first, taken just after the half-hour mark, was Liverpool at their ruthless best after Alisson Becker’s long punt had found Luis Diaz before Jordan Henderson combined with Mohamed Salah for the latter to find the No.17 at the back post.

It was a finish that bore more than a passing resemblance to his opener against Tottenham a few weeks ago as he met a cross from the right at the back post with a cushioned left-footed in-step into the bottom corner. Jones had his second a few minutes later when he rattled home another pass from Salah after turning sharply inside the Leicester penalty area.

It’s been a tough road to this point for Jones given his injury troubles of the last year or so. A freak eye injury and a tibia issue that is still being carefully managed through the help of a specialist have limited his availability. He had started just one Premier League game prior to this nine-game sequence that began at Chelsea on April 4.

Now, though, the England Under-21 international is starting to really grow in a Liverpool team that has almost rebooted itself since the March international break. Seven straight wins in a nine-game unbeaten sequence has them haring down on the top four as we head into the final week of this campaign.

Not to be denied his serenading from the away end, however, Jones was eventually treated to a rendition of his own anthem shortly into the second half. The Scouser in the team? There’s more than one now it seems.

The other homegrown hero, Alexander-Arnold, made the game safe with 20 minutes to go with one of the sweetest strikes of the season. It was Salah’s 14th assist of the campaign and his third of the night, but surely the easiest one of the lot as he simply rolled the ball in the direction of the No.66 who did the rest with a stunning, arching effort beyond Daniel Iversen.

It was another fine evening’s work from Alexander-Arnold who continues to thrive as one of the most dangerous players in the Premier League as this roving right-back-slash-central-midfielder. Quite what the plan for him is long term perhaps only Klopp knows right now but it’s been a joy to watch of late.

Two passes in particular during the second half were laced with the sort of menace that the opposition must surely fear when they do their pre-match analysis meetings. How do you combat his passing range when he can hurt you from so many different areas of the pitch?

The full-time whistle confirmed what had long been evident, another win for the Reds. It’s now 23 points taken from the last 27 on offer. A late-season surge might yet have to come too late in the day for Liverpool’s Champions League aspirations but they are giving it a right old charge.

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