Do Liverpool already have Wijnaldum's replacement in this youngster?

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Bengaluru, Dec 21: Liverpool have a great history of producing excellent young players and promoting them to the first-team and under the stewardship of Jurgen Klopp in the last few years, the Reds have kept more and more faith in their youth development.

Trent Alexander-Arnold's emergence from a youth graduate to arguably the best right-back in the world is a testament of how good the Reds' youth development has been but he is not alone. What is more incredible is how Klopp successfully integrates the younger players to the already-strong core of experienced and successful players.

A player who looks to be in the right path to follow the footsteps of Liverpool's greatest academy graduates is Curtis Jones. The 19-year-old is slowly but surely becoming more and more important to the Liverpool side despite the fact that Jurgen Klopp does not have any shortage of options in the middle of the park.

In a packed midfield with plenty of options, he has already made a total of 16 appearances among which 10 have been starts and the 19-year-old has had a return of three goals and one assist. During Jurgen Klopp's tenure at Anfield, the midfield has been heavily rotated week in week out and Jones has still been the fourth most used midfielder behind Gini Wijnaldum, Fabinho and Jordan Henderson which speaks volumes about his talent and how much Klopp rates him.

He is still just 19 years of age and future looks really bright for the England U21 international. In fact, he could well be the answer to Liverpool's situation with their most used midfielder Gini Wijnaldum as the Dutchman's contract is up for expiry in the summer of 2021.

Despite the fact that Wijnaldum has been a key player to Liverpool since his arrival from Newcastle United and Liverpool clearly had no intentions of letting him leave, there has not been any progress on Wijnaldum's contract situation.

If the Dutchman leaves the club, the Reds could have an automatic replacement of him in Jones. Wijnaldum's role in the Liverpool system is crucial and very much unique. And, from what has been evident this season following Jones' emergence is that the Englishman has all the technical and tactical acumen to play in a similar role.

Just like Wijnaldum, Jones started his footballing career in a more adventurous role as an attacking midfielder but Klopp has gradually converted him to a number eight and Jones has played most of his games for Liverpool in the midfield trio.

Despite his natural attacking instinct, the 19-year-old is blessed with the discipline needed to thrive in Liverpool's midfield three and his willingness and eagerness to try things, his flicks and tricks and passes, his driving forward and energy has been magnificent.

There is a sense of belief and confidence in Jones' game that sets him apart from most players of his age and that shows every time he gets into the pitch. He is never overawed by the players around him or by the opponents. In terms of his numbers also, Jones has been phenomenal and beats almost every other Liverpool midfielder in terms of stats per 90 minutes.

He averages 1.1 shots per game compared to Wijnaldum's 0.7 and his shot accuracy has been incredible at 100% so far. Also, Jones has attempted a total of 87.3 passes per game with 92.66% accuracy in comparison to Wijnaldum's 52.8 passes with 90.21% accuracy.

Jones has also been showing a great deal of defensive awareness so far and has outperformed Wijnaldum in that department as well. Jones has averaged 1.6 tackles, 1.4 clearances and 1.1 interceptions per 90 minutes in comparison to Wijnaldum's 0.9 tackles, 0.4 clearances and 1.1 interceptions per 90 minutes.

It would be wrong to say that Jones is better than Wijnaldum already. Wijnaldum is one of the best and most important players at Anfield but if he does leave, Liverpool might have gotten a ready-made replacement from their own youth ranks.