Former Republic of Ireland international Andy Townsend has praised young Liverpool starlets Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott after their performances against MK Dons on Wednesday.
Jurgen Klopp’s men eased to a routine 2-0 victory over the League One side at Stadium MK, and Townsend was very impressed with two of Liverpool’s youngsters.
“That’s the way it is… usually if young players are selected and they don’t perform invariably that drops on the manager’s lap that they weren’t ready, perhaps, to play in those sorts of games,” he said on the Football Daily podcast [26/09; 22:05].
“A lot of the young Liverpool players we saw tonight: Curtis Jones, Rhian Brewster, Harvey Elliott, they all did OK. Elliott and Jones, in particular, did very well here.”
OPINION
There’s no doubt that both Jones and Elliott were excellent against Paul Tisdale’s team on Wednesday, particularly the latter. We saw that the former Fulham man hit the post twice, while Jones’ under-the-radar display was equally impactful on the night. The statistics show how good the young duo were at Stadium MK. As per WhoScored.com, Elliott made 55 passes and Jones 60, with their pass success rates standing at 87.3% and 90% respectively. They were both tremendous with their long balls forward, Elliott going three for three and Jones two for three. They both had four shots on goal, while Elliott embarked on four dribbles and Jones two. The 16-year-old, as well, made three key passes on Wednesday. Their WhoScored ratings for the game were 8.21 for Elliott and 7.41 for Jones, the second and fourth highest tallies of any Liverpool player against the Dons. There’s no doubt, then, that they were terrific, although Brewster was, as Townsend says, just OK.
