CURTIS JONES got a text from Jurgen Klopp proving that while he may be gone those he left behind are far from forgotten.
The midfielder found the Liverpool legend’s message after making his 100th Premier League appearance in Thursday’s 3-1 comeback win over Leicester.
Jones, who marked the occasion with the goal that put the runaway leaders in front, revealed his dressing-room surprise and said: “Normally I would text family.
“Then I saw a text from Jurgen Klopp saying, ‘Congratulations on 100 games and here’s to 500.’
“I was like, ‘What’s he on about?’ — then I checked and I’m so proud.
“It was him who set up the team we have now — the foundation was there and Arne Slot has carried it on.”
The Dutchman is storming English football and the Champions League in his first season on these shores.
And Jones, 23, has become a crucial component of Slot’s machine that is swallowing the opposition both at home and abroad.
Now he has the stats to prove it having declared after only a few weeks working with Slot that he had “never been happier” as a player.
The former Feyenoord boss also regularly namechecks his predecessor over the stars he inherited.
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Indeed, he was so happy with what he had that his only outfield buy after arriving was Federico Chiesa, 27, from Juventus for £10million.
Yet he has done so much more than just “carrying on” with a squad that by the end of Klopp’s nine-year reign last season looked spent and won just the League Cup.
He is in the process of lifting them up to new levels as they top the Prem with a game in hand and lead the Champions League table.
That text may have left Jones totally gobsmacked at first.
But he is one of the players Slot has transformed after bringing in his version of the adventurous Total Football philosophy pioneered by Dutch coaching legend Rinus Michels in the 70s.
Jones made his England breakthrough this year after being encouraged to be more careful with the ball — but he is far from alone in profiting from Slot’s new slant of Klopp’s heavy metal football.
Bought last season by the German from Bayern Munich for £34.2m, Ryan Gravenberch, 22, was a ball-carrying attacker whose dribbling style made him too inconsistent under Klopp.
Slot has reinvented his countryman into one of the best holding midfielders in Europe.
Another Holland international in Cody Gakpo, who arrived from PSV Eindhoven for £37m two years ago, was in and out of Klopp’s side.
Last season the left-sided attacker scored 16 goals in 53 games.
His brilliant equaliser against the Foxes was already his tenth goal this term, in just 26 appearances, and showed the new confidence the 25-year-old has under Slot.
There were fears in Klopp’s final season that Virgil van Dijk had passed his peak as the best central defender in the world.
Now he is not only Holland captain but Slot’s skipper, too, after Jordan Henderson left, and is thriving once more.
The Leicester clash was his 50th Prem game in a row and having played in every minute of them, the 33-year-old is only getting better with age.
Andy Robertson, too, had begun to look past his sell-by date and even after Slot came in was struggling to maintain his old feisty, attacking full-back style.
But the Scotland skipper, 30, is another now revelling under the new manager’s methods — and he was only denied a goal against Leicester after popping up in the box with a header that hit a post.
Like all football-loving youngsters back home, Slot — born four years after Holland’s enthralling 1974 World Cup campaign saw them beaten 2-1 by West Germany in the final — grew up on Total Football.
The philosophy was based on any outfield player being able to take over the role of any team-mate no matter the position.
To maintain fluidity, each player should be able to play a variety of roles during a game.
Johan Cruyff used it as manager of Barcelona; Pep Guardiola won the Champions League twice at the Nou Camp as his disciple.
As a player, Slot was a worshipper of the pair before he began honing his coaching skills in charge of SC Cambuur in 2016, before moving on to AZ.
As he was making Feyenoord 2023 Dutch champions, he said: “Guardiola gives me the ultimate pleasure in football.
“I’d rather watch Manchester City than any other team in the world.”
Guardiola, of course, is now in a desperate battle to help his side rediscover their metronomic passing game that led City to becoming Prem champs for a record fourth season in a row last campaign.
Slot may have started out using his inner-Guardiola but now he is outgunning his tactical hero.
His methods look to be increasing both the number of goals and points his slick side are picking up.
At the start of November, Liverpool were a point behind Manchester City — now they are 14 points ahead having played a game less, with a trip to West Ham next up this evening.
They are also scoring for fun and have hit an incredible two or more goals in 13 of their last 14 games.
Under Guardiola, City seemed invincible for so long. Now Slot, after just one defeat in his reign, is giving Liverpool that same unbeatable aura.
And none of what he teaches is double Dutch to his happy squad.
