Virgil van Dijk claims Curtis Jones must take the next step in his development by becoming consistent.
Jones has started Liverpool ’s last four games and was man of the match in their Champions League win in Porto when he had two assists.
The midfielder has one goal and three assists in his five Premier League and European games for the Reds and van Dijk says the next challenge for the 20-year-old is to maintain this high level.
“Obviously in the last couple of games he’s shown that he has the quality to be there and is doing well,” said the Reds defender.
“He’s still young, he’s still learning, he has a great mentality. He has to keep that going. It’s only the start for him and he has to keep showing it.
“The most difficult part of being a football player is being consistent, so that’s going to be a big challenge for him. But so far, so good.”
Jones has grabbed the chance presented to him by Harvey Elliott’s ankle injury and Van Dijk says it was tough for him getting his opportunity in such unfortunate circumstances.
“Unfortunately, Harvey got injured and he was doing so well,” said the Holland star.
“It was difficult probably for Curtis to see that because obviously he wanted to play, but saw Harvey doing so well. He had to take his chance.
“At the moment, I think if you look at our midfield, Naby Keita is still doing very well, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is doing very well, so it’s not easy to be out there.”
