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Danny Murphy has singled out Curtis Jones, who he said “set the tone” in Liverpool's victory over Brighton on Saturday.
The 2-0 victory lifted Liverpool to sixth place, extending its unbeaten run to five games and marking their first home win since Nov. 4.
Attention was firmly on Mohamed Salah, who returned to the squad after being left out of Liverpool’s midweek Champions League trip to Inter Milan following his explosive interview last weekend at Leeds. Initially named on the bench by Arne Slot, the Egyptian came on in the 26th minute after Joe Gomez was forced off with an injury, with Dominik Szoboszlai shifting to right-back.
Gomez had earlier played a key role in Liverpool’s opener, his header finding Hugo Ekitike, who took a single touch before volleying past Bart Verbruggen after just 46 seconds—the fastest Premier League goal of the season so far.
Murphy thought Jones stood out for his performance against Fabian Hurzeler's side. "Hugo Ekitike is full of confidence. He was pivotal in all Liverpool’s good stuff today" said the Match of the Day pundit. "The importance of the win, particularly after Inter was massive.
"Arne Slot changed the system from midweek... went back to the 4-3-2-1 and the way Brighton play suited Liverpool. I thought Curtis Jones stood out and it was another good performance from Wirtz.
"I think what I took from today and midweek was the importance of Curtis Jones. I thought he was brilliant again setting the tone without the ball and great with it. I also think Wirtz had another good first half or 60 minutes because he got a bit leggy at the end."
Jones was as combative as he was creative, treating the ball with precision, reflected in his 94% pass accuracy (72/77), and ensured Liverpool dictated the tempo from start to finish.
Four of his five dribble attempts succeeded, he was dispossessed only once by Brighton, and his defensive contributions—including two tackles, two clearances, and two recoveries—highlight just a fraction of what was an almost flawless performance.
On the game Slot said: "Hard work. We had to work really hard for this win because we faced a very good team that kept going to the end. For the first time in weeks, I feel like we had a bit of luck today. We have a clean sheet and in other games we have conceded three without the other team having as many chances.
"In the second half in the moments they had, when we were together in and around our box. We had chances on the counter but I quite liked the way we played.
"Maybe we deserved this bit of luck, because of the mentality that we showed and the injuries and other things like that."
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