Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones urges calm as the Reds plot response to bruising week of setbacks
For the first time this season, Liverpool have hit turbulence. What began as a near-perfect start under Arne Slot has, within the space of a few days, been replaced by something altogether less serene back to back defeats, familiar defensive lapses, and searching questions about resilience.
The Reds followed Saturday’s last-gasp Premier League defeat at Crystal Palace with a 1-0 loss away to Galatasaray in the Champions League on Tuesday night. On a raw and hostile evening at RAMS Park, Victor Osimhen’s first-half penalty was enough to condemn Slot’s men to their first European setback of the campaign and a second successive defeat in all competitions.
It has been a bruising four-day spell that has tested the collective mood inside the Liverpool dressing room. Their 100 per cent start to the Premier League title defence was abruptly halted by Oliver Glasner’s Palace at Selhurst Park, where two late goals overturned the reigning champions mood and left them stunned. If that defeat felt like a jolt, Istanbul added a sting of its own a reminder of just how unforgiving elite competition can be.
Slot’s side had travelled to Turkey with hopes of steadying the ship. Instead, they encountered a Galatasaray team brimming with intensity, roared on by a crowd that seemed to treat every duel as a personal crusade. Liverpool struggled to find rhythm, their passing lacking its usual crispness, their counter-press a half-step off. When Osimhen converted calmly from the spot midway through the first half, it felt like a moment the hosts had earned.
The Reds pushed late on, but without their usual control and edge in the final third, they couldn’t find the breakthrough.
For Curtis Jones, who started in midfield, the defeats are not cause for panic but they are a clear reminder of what’s required to stay at the top
“If you look left and right, there’s world-class lads all around,” Jones told LFCTV after the game. “But it’s not all about that, it’s about lads who want to go and win.”
“It’s OK if you’re nice on the ball and stuff like that but you have to go and win, work hard and run more and that is what the lads know, of course they do.”
“But as I have said already, there are games like this, and it won’t be the last as well.”
“We would be mad to think we can turn up and just win these games. It’s about how much we want to win.”
“Of course we’re upset, but there are positives to take and there is a game again in three days and we have to go again.”
His words carried a mixture of honesty and defiance. This is not a Liverpool side accustomed to extended dips. Since Slot succeeded Jürgen Klopp in the summer of 2024, they have largely cut a composed, efficient, and ruthless figure seven straight league wins after their Community Shield penalty shoot-out loss to Palace had seemed to signal a team intent on building early momentum.
Now, though, comes a stretch that will reveal different qualities. The fixture list offers no time to breathe. Chelsea away on Saturday looms large; a “huge game,” in Jones’ own description, that could shape the narrative heading into the October international break.
The defeat in Istanbul also shone a light on some tactical and physical shortcomings that Slot must address swiftly. Galatasaray pressed aggressively and targeted Liverpool’s midfield channels, forcing uncharacteristic errors and breaking up their passing patterns. In attack, Hugo Ekitike’s movement caused problems but the service into him was inconsistent, while wide areas lacked the usual thrust and precision.
Jones accepted that on the night, the hosts simply showed more bite.
“They were aggressive and they wanted it,” he admitted. “And that’s something we have to match every time.”
Liverpool have experienced far worse setbacks in recent years, but the manner of these two defeats late collapses, individual lapses, and a slight dip in collective intensity will have disappointed Slot. The Dutchman has never lost three in a row as Liverpool boss. That record will be on the line when his team walk out at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea, revitalised under Enzo Maresca, have quietly gathered momentum in the league. For Slot, the challenge is clear arrest the slide before it snowballs into something more damaging.
Within the Liverpool camp, though, there is little appetite for melodrama. Jones measured tone reflected a wider understanding that seasons are defined by how teams respond to adversity, not just how they perform when everything is flowing.
“There are positives to take,” he insisted. “And there is a game again in three days and we have to go again.”
Liverpool’s ability to “go again” has been a defining trait of their modern era. Whether Slot’s version of the Reds can summon that same steel will be tested under the floodlights in west London this weekend.
For now, the message is simple: keep calm, regroup, and rediscover their bite. A bruising week has brought the first real questions of the Slot era Chelsea away will hopefully begin to provide the answers.
