Arne Slot issues Curtis Jones injury update as Liverpool boss names youngster who impressed him most

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has insisted there is much more to come from his side despite an impressive start to pre-season against Real Betis in the USA. The Dutch coach also gave an update on the injury that Curtis Jones sustained in the friendly.

"We had more than a good few moments in our high press and one of the main things was that we only conceded one big chance at the end of the game," Slot said live on LFCTV post-match. "In the first half, we controlled the game but the choices that we make can and will be better in the future. We created five or six really good attacks and the goal was a fantastic example of that.

"We played with a double 10 that we're not going to do during the season but we don't have a striker at the moment. Once we have a center forward, we will set up a bit differently."

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Curtis Jones picked up a knock in the first half and he was replaced by Trey Nyoni , mainly as a precaution. Slot is not expecting the Scouse midfielder to be missing for long, though a full examination of the issue is yet to be undertaken.

"We're not expecting it to be worse but ideally he would have played on of course," Slot said. "I don't think it's a big problem but we have to wait and see when they test him tomorrow. He did really well in the last few weeks but someone else came in and Trey (Nyoni) played quite well.

"I said yesterday that I'm not going to name any youngster that caught my eye but if you see that he comes in after 30 minutes, you could expect that I meant him. He just turned 17 so his body is not grown yet and he needs some time to get stronger.

"He found a lot of players between the lines and the biggest chance we had, it was a great pass from him. We know we have a lot of good players and if the youngsters can help during the season, that is good of course.

"Some of them are not youngsters anymore. The likes of Tyler Morton and even Stefan Bajcetic have played a lot of senior football. I'm really impressed with the energy of the whole team and the way that they really want to implement everything that we're trying to teach them.

"You want to see a team that does everything to keep a clean sheet. With the ball, we can and will do much better — if individuals performers get better, at the decisions they make, we will eventually get better as well."

Liverpool.com says: You simply have to have your fingers crossed for Jones. He has looked excellent so far this summer but really needed a full pre-season to get himself in top form for the middle of August. Hopefully, that will still be possible.