Liverpool’s counter-pressing was in fine working order in the 4-2 win over Newcastle United on Monday. The Reds made 10 ball recoveries in the attacking third of the field, matching the total they mustered in their previous game, against Burnley.
This flurry of final third regains has lifted Liverpool’s average to 6.3 per game in the 2023/24 Premier League. Across the previous six completed seasons, only two teams topped this mark in the English top flight and they were both the Reds anyway (with 7.6 in 2021/22 and 6.6 two years earlier on the way to the title).
What will likely please Jürgen Klopp most is that different players have been making contributions in recent weeks. At Turf Moor it was Ryan Gravenberch who led the way, with four possession regains in the Clarets’ defensive third, while the front three of Cody Gakpo, Darwin Núñez and Mohamed Salah all chipped in too.
In the victory against the Magpies, Joe Gomez and Dominik Szoboszlai were among the men who contributed to the high press. But top of the pile was Curtis Jones, with four final third regains, and Klopp was quick to highlight his efforts when speaking after the match.
“It was a special game from Curtis to be honest, his high-press and counter-pressing,” Klopp said (via Liverpool ECHO). “We all know how good Curtis is, he is incredibly skilled technically, but he finds more and more direction in his dribbling, he gets out of tight spaces and his pressing meanwhile, he sets the level actually, how it should look. It keeps every player in the game, the counter-pressing was absolutely exceptional.”
Jones’ four recoveries in the final third is a far more impressive number than it may initially sound. When Fenway Sports Group first owned Liverpool, it hired Damien Comolli as its director of football. He reportedly believed that attacking third regains were vital to winning games, and though the Reds led the Premier League for this metric when he was fired in 2011/12, they did so averaging 3.3 per game.
Even in the early years under Klopp, Liverpool did not average many more attacking third ball recoveries than what Jones delivered against a Champions League-standard opponent earlier this week. The Reds recorded 4.3 per game in 2016/17, upping the rate by 0.2 the following season.
Per Fotmob, Jones is now averaging 1.3 final third regains per 90 minutes, just behind Harvey Elliott (1.6) and Gravenberch (1.4), though only the latter of the two has played more minutes. Away from Liverpool, only four other players in the Premier League have better rates than Jones having had more game time than the Reds’ midfielder.
The key will obviously be if he can sustain this rate. In 2020/21, Jones averaged 0.76 recoveries in the final third per 90, 0.63 the following year and then 0.61 last season. The level he is delivering this term is noticeably above what has gone before.
But he doesn’t turn 23 until the end of this month and there were hints in 2022/23 that this sort of development was on the cards. Jones made 14 tackles in the final third, the joint-10th most in the Premier League last season. Every player above him in the standings had over twice as much game time and he led the Liverpool squad for this metric despite only playing 1,035 minutes.
Tackles obviously have their place but as defensive actions go they offer no guarantee of retaining possession. Regaining the ball is far likelier to lead to a positive outcome, and indeed Liverpool generated four shots from high turnovers against Newcastle, its best return of the season so far. With Jones reaching the standards to which Klopp aspires and other players contributing well, the Liverpool counter-press is in fine fettle for the title run-in.
