Steven Gerrard has jokingly called on the Football Association and England’s coaches to be fined after Curtis Jones impressed in England’s win over Greece.
The Liverpool legend’s tongue-in-cheek remark comes as Jones made a goalscoring debut for the Three Lions against Greece. The 23-year-old marked his first England cap with a superb effort as he flicked Morgan Gibbs White’s cross behind him to secure a 3-0 victory.
Jones has enjoyed an impressive run of form under Arne Slot at Anfield and transferred that to the international stage. Gerrard coached the Reds’ star while in charge of the Anfield side’s under-18s.
The Al-Ettifaq manager took aim at the England set-up for taking to so long to embrace Jones’ talents following his starring performance. “What a player,” Gerrard posted on his Instagram story. “Fine the FA and all the coaches for being late.”
The plaudits did not end their for Jones with interim-manager Lee Carsley waxing lyrical about the midfielder’s outing. “Curtis Jones is an outstanding player,” he told ITV.
“He played really well, even without his goal. With his goal it was an excellent performance. People were speaking last night about the inexperience in the squad but these players are playing for their clubs at a really high level.”
Jones was equally complimentary of the freedom he was provided by his England teammates. The Anfield academy product highlighted the coverage by Jude Bellingham allowed him the opportunity to score his goal.
“If you’ve got a team like ours, like that, I can go high, I can come low, I can get on the ball, I can play,” he explained. “There’s lads there to help, there’s also lads who said I can go as well. Jude [Bellingham] stayed back and I saw I had a chance to go. That’s what I did and luckily enough I scored.
“The lads around helped as well. I just went out there, I was playing free, I had a smile on my face, I was enjoying it and I’m happy that I came away with a goal as well.”
Gerrard has proven inspirational to Jones’ career, improving the young star’s mentality to reach the top. “I say it now, still, I feel like Steven was the one who came in and made me really think, ‘Look, if I lock all the way in, now I can go to the top’,” Jones said previously.
