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Curtis Jones has said Liverpool must improve the basics to correct their unconvincing run of form, including work rate and will-to-win, and believes they have enough world-class talent to ensure their problems will not deepen.
Liverpool visit Chelsea on Saturday looking to recover from two consecutive defeats, against Galatasaray in the Champions League and, before that, Crystal Palace in the Premier League. It is only the second time that Arne Slot has suffered back-to-back losses as head coach.
The champions produced another disjointed display in Istanbul where, despite dominating possession, the visitors rarely troubled Galatasaray’s goalkeeper, Ugurcan Cakir. Jones echoed Virgil van Dijk’s insistence that Liverpool have no reason to panic, but admitted Slot’s side must do more at all times to arrest their recent slide.
“If you look left and right, there’s world-class lads all around,” the midfielder said. “But it is not all about that, it’s about lads who want to go and win. It’s OK if you’re nice on the ball and stuff like that but you have to go and win, work hard and run more. The lads know that, of course they do, but you have games like this and it won’t be the last as well. We would be mad to think we can turn up and just win these games. It’s about how much we want to win.
“Of course we’re upset, but there are positives to take and there is a game again in three days and we have to go again.”
Liverpool will be without Alisson at Stamford Bridge after he was forced off injured in Turkey. Hugo Ekitike was also withdrawn but could be involved on Saturday if his injury turns out to have been cramp.
Jones admits the Chelsea game has assumed huge importance to Liverpool and an improvement on the Galatasaray performance is essential. “It is the Champions League and it is always going to be a hard game,” he said.
“It’s [Galatasaray’s] biggest game of the year, I’d say, and I think it showed with the fans and how the players played as well. If you look at their first game, they get beat [5-1 by Eintracht Frankfurt], and if you look at it tonight, it didn’t even look like we could have scored.
“We played out loads, it was positive at times when they came and pressed. Me, Ryan [Gravenberch] and Flo [Florian Wirtz] played through and went but we’d like more shots and obviously more goals.
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“It’s just part of the game. You must be mad if you think you can win every game. You’d obviously like to but the reality is these teams you play are world-class and it’s normal if you lose, it’s just how you bounce back. We’ve got a huge game again in three days, the lads have to stay calm. It’s not fine that we lose but we just have to stay calm and it will all change, of course it will.”
