Liverpool’s Curtis Jones Replacement Plan - Three Midfielders Who Fit Iraola’s Blueprint
A statistical dive into three midfielders whose intensity, ball progression and defensive output align with Liverpool’s new tactical direction.
It’s becoming increasingly more likely that Liverpool will have to say farewell to Curtis Jones this summer.
There’s a clear desire from the player’s side to want to move on from his boyhood club and establish himself as a regular starter elsewhere.
Inter Milan are interested, and they represent an ideal opportunity for Jones to try himself in a slower-paced league that is more suited to his style of play.
It’s a real shame that things have ended in this way. As a scouse academy product, you want to keep those players around for as long as possible. There’s no denying Jones could be an extremely valuable player for Andoni Iraola’s side, even as a starter, however if a player wants to move on there’s nothing you can do.
The only question then becomes, what now? How will Liverpool replace him?
Well, Trey Nyoni is making a good case for himself in pre-season. There are obviously the murmurs about Adam Wharton.
But I’ve decided to take a look at three under the radar candidates, who could be ideal Jones replacements.
Victor Froholdt
The Danish midfielder is becoming one of the most valuable young midfielders playing outside of Europe’s top five leagues.
Iraola’s football is known all about pressing with intensity and covering a lot of distances. Froholdt does exactly that. He is quick and he presses with a lot of intensity. Take a look at this CIES table of distances covered per 90 minutes by U20 players and see how the Danish midfielder ranks in third place.
Froholdt is a proper box-to-box midfielder who will just run up and down the pitch and he can make an impact in the final third. Think of him as a prime Jordan Henderson type midfielder.
