Curtis Jones vs Cole Palmer: Who are you picking?

The change in coaching to Arne Slot has reaped immediate rewards that we’re not sure even the most optimistic of Liverpool fans could have expected.

Top of the Premier League and Champions League tables with only one draw and one loss in 17 games would have elicited some very excited reactions if Liverpool fans were offered it before the start of the season.

But beyond just the results that have been churned out, it is the standard of individual performances from unexpected sources that seem the most promising of it all.

READ MORE: Man United manager admits Liverpool star is his best EVER signing

Ryan Gravenberch, Ibrahima Konate and Kostas Tsimikas have all stepped into roles that they are excelling at this season in ways that were not anticipated before the season has started.

Perhaps the biggest surprise has come in the form of Curtis Jones, however, who has seemingly displaced Dominik Szoboszlai in the Liverpool starting XI.

Is Curtis Jones better than Cole Palmer?

With the praise for Jones starting to roll in, former Liverpool player David Thompson has made a very bold claim.

“In terms of ability I do make the comparison with Cole Palmer.” Thompson said on LFC TV’s post-match show after the 2-0 win over Aston Villa, “I think technically they [Palmer and Jones] are at the same level”.

“I actually think Curtis Jones does more work off the ball.”

“I think over the years the criticism Curtis has got, people do not really know if he is a midfielder or he is an attacker, but he has really adapted his game this year. And he is that hybrid in between, he can do both, he is absolutely sensational.”

As good as Jones has been this season so far - and he truly has - a comparison to Cole Palmer is as interesting as it is questionable.

Most specifically, the two play different positions. Jones is mainly occupying the advanced inside-right role in Slot’s 4-3-3 that Szoboszlai was operating in before him, while Palmer plays as a more typical number 10 in a 4-2-3-1 system.

As a result, Palmer is required to have and demonstrate more technical ability in attacking positions. He is, understandably, one of the most exciting players in the entire country, averaging 5.12 shot creating actions per-90 to Jones’s 1.52. He also averages almost three times as many progressive carries, and almost one more progressive pass per-90 than the Scouser.

Jones certainly does more work off the ball, as is necessary of his position. Over double the amount of tackles and interceptions per-90 and a 71.4% tackle rate to Palmer’s 33.3% is demonstrative of that.

But maybe the comparison isn’t that ill-founded. Palmer has no real meaningful contributions in games this season against the traditional ‘big six’, whilst Jones himself was central to Liverpool’s victory over Chelsea alone.

Regardless, we can hope to see the two of them linking up for England very soon.

READ MORE: Liverpool and Man City have WILDLY different records with David Coote