Curtis Jones didn’t sugarcoat Liverpool’s first-half efficiency of their 3-3 draw towards Newcastle on Wednesday evening.
The Reds trailed 1-0 on the interval and, in all honesty, that scoreline was a good reflection on how the primary 45 minutes had unfolded at St James’ Park.
Nevertheless, the midfielder equalised shortly after the break, the primary of 5 objectives in a pulsating second half throughout which each groups led earlier than the spoils have been ultimately shared.
Jones offers blunt first-half verdict
Chatting with liverpoolfc.com afterwards, Jones pulled no punches in assessing his workforce’s first-half show, though he was happy with how they responded after the interval.
The 23-year-old stated: “It’s easy. I believe the primary half was poor and the second half was good. We obtained our objectives, we had all of the ball and dominated. It’s easy. We’ll take our level and transfer on.”
The midfielder added: “The primary half was robust. We have been horrible after which we upped it within the second half…I believe within the first half we have been sloppy. We have been gradual, misplaced a load of duels and we picked up tender [yellow] playing cards. That simply reveals you’re a bit of bit gradual in your tackles. It’s considered one of them days.”
A good and trustworthy evaluation from Jones
Liverpool followers will certainly respect Jones’ honesty in acknowleding that the Reds have been far in need of their typical requirements throughout the first half specifically at St James’ Park.
Newcastle had been the higher workforce even earlier than Alexander Isak’s thunderbolt end, with a half-time xG of 0.89 to 0.25 of their favour indicating as a lot, and so they had nearly twice as many pictures because the guests (9 v 5) within the opening 45 minutes (Sofascore).
Far too usually earlier than the interval, Slot’s workforce struggled to get out of their very own half of the pitch, however at the very least there was an enchancment thereafter as they netted 3 times however nonetheless relinquished two factors late on.
Jones marked his one hundred and fiftieth Liverpool look along with his 18th aim for the membership, and he was one of many Reds’ higher performers on the evening. As per Sofascore, he misplaced simply two of his 57 passes (96% success fee) and received seven out of 11 duels, together with finishing 100% of his dribbles and making one key cross.
LFC can’t afford such a torpid first-half show within the derby on Saturday, however after we’re coming away from Newcastle with a end result regardless of being nowhere close to our greatest and nonetheless seven factors clear on the high of the Premier League, it’s not the worst situation wherein to seek out ourselves.
