Maybe now he has a better connection with his teammates because he played more and more together. That’s also what you get if you play them more and more together. But off the ball I see the biggest improvement with him and with some others. That combination makes you ready for the Premier League, because the Premier League is about both. It’s not only on the ball, it’s also definitely off the ball.
On Curtis Jones’ role within the squad…
I think what you’ve seen. He’s played a lot of minutes, not all of them, but I think he’s also unlucky in the sense it’s probably the only line where we haven’t had injuries. Still, he’s played a lot of minutes, so that’s why, of course, why we kept him as well because we have in deadline a lot of players but we need these midfielders in different positions as well.
The moment you start to need midfielders in different positions, the line in midfield gets, smaller and smaller. Of course, we kept him and his situation hasn’t changed. To us, he’s one of the 16 outfield players we have available for long-term now and also at this moment of time with, two, really young players with Trey [Nyoni] and Rio [Ngumoha] included. It would be a bit strange if we would let anyone go if you only have 16 available.
On Milos Kerkez’s development since he joined the club last summer…
This is what you get if you play longer together with your teammates. This is what you get if you keep playing those players, even if they are maybe in sometimes having moments in games that are not as good as other moments, or games that have not been as good as other games. This is also normal for younger players and the only thing you can do as a manager is keep trusting them and keep believing in them because we know, we signed [him], we saw his potential and we knew – and it already has been shown – that potential will be seen if you keep playing them.
But there are a lot, a lot of games to be played and for him, it was the first time the combination of Premier League and Champions League, that’s why I’m also so happy to have Robbo [Andy Robertson] in the squad because he has helped the team on multiple occasions as well. But definitely Milos is another example of a very young player we’ve signed where the best of him is still to come and he’s already developed this season.
