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Liverpool headed to Villa Park on Wednesday evening with the chance to go 10 points clear at the top of the Premier League.
The Reds are embarking on a hectic schedule before the end of February, with further games against Man City and Newcastle penned in.
But first up was a visit to what is statistically Liverpool’s favourite ground to travel to in the Premier League.
Villa are a different beast under Unai Emery these days, though, and the Reds knew they’d need to be better than they were during Sunday’s win over Wolves.
With so many game in quick succession, Arne Slot had been expected to shuffle the Liverpool squad a little on Wednesday.
In the end, Slot kept things fairly similar, making only one change from the team that beat Wolves.
That change came at left wing, where the Liverpool head coach interestingly employed Curtis Jones.
And after watching the early parts of the game, Reds fans quickly made their minds up.
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When the line-ups were released on Wednesday evening, it had looked likely that Dominik Szoboszlai would be starting on the left.
But after the game kicked off, it was clear that it would be Jones in for Luis Diaz.
With Federico Chiesa on the bench, some supporters were left wondering why the Italian had not been picked.
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“Curtis Jones right wing as how?” asked one.
“I just don’t get what he’s meant to be offering.” “I’m struggling to see what Jones is on the left for, he’s not exactly offering anything,” slammed another.
However, after Jones played a part in the Reds opening the scoring, others singled out the work from the Liverpool academy graduate.
“That all comes from Curtis Jones’ pressing.
Curtis Jones has the best pressing brain in this Liverpool squad, right up there with Szoboszlai,” one more claimed.
There were some really good moments from Jones on the left of the Liverpool attack.
However, in general it’s clear that Liverpool did miss a more natural forward on the wing.
Jones’ better moments came when the Scouser drifted in-field and tried to make something happen from central areas.
With Chiesa and Diaz on the bench, it will be interesting to see how long Slot leaves it before turning to his substitutes.
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