Africa-Press – Gambia. Jurgen Klopp has named the Liverpool star he wants to replace Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane while they are away at the Africa Cup of Nations. Salah and Mane will be in Cameroon for the tournament until at least the end of the month, with their absences having a clear detrimental effect on the Reds.
Klopp’s men struggled to a goalless draw over 10-man Arsenal in the Carabao Cup in midweek, with a clear lack of creativity in their star duo’s absence.
The Liverpool boss does not have a plethora of quality attacking options at his disposal, with Divock Origi and Takumi Minamino trying to fill the gap.
But the goals and creative force that Salah and Mane bring was dearly missed by the Reds and could threaten to rule them out of the title race. Liverpool already require a minor miracle to overtake leaders Manchester City, who sit 14 points ahead of them having played a game more.
With finances at the Reds tight and the club focused more on handing out new contracts than signings, Klopp may have to look within his existing squad to replace Salah and Mane.
JUST IN: Liverpool in £80m Mohamed Salah standoff as Reds refuse to back down “But we have to come now and really make the next steps so he fulfils the potential he has on the pitch very often.
“We have these kind of conversations when you are not 100% happy with the moment. He’s young, very young.
“But how I see it his potential is incredible, so we have to both together find a way to show that much more often so we are really in this development.” Klopp also hailed the Englishman for his versatility, insisting that Jones can full a number of roles in his team.
“He can play different positions in different ways; [against Arsenal] we brought him in and wanted him to just dribble, to be there in tight areas and change the way they had to defend,” he added.
“We needed a different dynamic and dimension in the game and that’s we brought him in. But he cannot only play that, he can of course play as an eight as well and did already very well for us.
“It’s an ongoing process with Curtis but I know we had a tricky time with a long [time] out and after that with Covid, so that’s not helpful.
“But we try to make sure that he gets rhythm and can show how good he can actually be.”
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