Swansea’s Jonjo Shelvey returns to Anfield to take on former club Liverpool on Monday Night Football

Jonjo Shelvey returns to Anfield still looking to fulfil his huge potential, writes Adam Bate.

Throughout history there have always been those games in which great players overshadow the contest itself, moulding it to their whim: Diego Maradona’s impact for Argentina against England in 1986 or Roy Keane’s heroic efforts against Juventus in the Champions League semi-final in 1999.

These players don’t so much take part in a game but take it over. And yet, even the greats cannot claim to have performed the feat with quite such distinctive showmanship as Jonjo Shelvey managed to do in his first game against former club Liverpool last season.

In September 2013, the Swansea midfielder fired in the opening goal within four minutes only to play a careless backpass to allow Liverpool to equalise and then inexplicably surrender possession once again for the Reds to take the lead. Balance was restored when he set up Michu for the equaliser in a 2-2 draw that left the 21 other participants reduced to roles in the Shelvey show.

It was a testament to his character that his final contribution should be a positive one. Then Swansea boss Michael Laudrup preferred to accentuate the positive, praising his second-half recovery and refusal to hide away, while insisting that Shelvey would “become stronger out of this” experience. And yet, it was also a player laying bare the weaknesses that remained in his game.

When you see him every day and work closely with him, the quality Jonjo has is frightening. I think we have only seen about 50 per cent of what he can do.

Brendan Rodgers, who’d tipped Shelvey for a “big future” and even singled him out for a “prominent role” at Liverpool just months before selling him, hinted at these issues in his own post-match assessment. “Jonjo Shelvey is an outstanding young player, but he knows he has things in his game he needs to improve on. He will only do that from playing. This was a steep learning curve for him.”

Fifteen months on and that just about sums up where Shelvey is in his career at the moment. Garry Monk is now the man charged with bringing the best out of the player. Just as Kenny Dalglish had done when throwing Shelvey into the Liverpool first-team following a loan spell at Blackpool, Monk recognises the talent that the midfielder possesses. Harnessing it is the challenge.

Monk's weekend plea for Shelvey to cut out the laziness suggests that's easier said than done. "I will push him every single day, but you also need to want it yourself," said Monk following an underwhelming performance from the midfielder against Aston Villa on Boxing Day. "I think he does want it, but he also needs to understand the time for being lazy with it is gone." Fortunately, it seems the Swansea boss isn't ready to give up on the player just yet.

“When you see him every day and work closely with him, the quality Jonjo has is frightening,” said Monk, quoted in the South Wales Evening Post earlier this month. “I think we have only seen about 50 per cent of what he can do. We need to get him in the right place physically and mentally to be able to do it. He is still very young, which a lot of people tend to forget because he has been around for so long.

"He might just need to do a bit of growing up in terms of the maturity in his game and recognising certain things a bit more because that ability is frightening. If we get that right and work with him closely, we will have a top-six player on our hands. It is up to me to get that from him, but it is up to him to push himself, which is what we are trying to do.”

The youthfulness to which Monk refers remains somewhat surprising and it’s easy to see why it might influence perceptions about Shelvey. A Championship regular at 16, he is still only 22 years old – younger than Tottenham hope Ryan Mason and three years younger than recent England international midfielders Fabian Delph, Jack Colback and Tom Cleverley. Time is still on his side.

More importantly, he also has qualities that those players do not possess in such abundance. The England national team appears set on putting a greater focus on ball retention with the raking long balls once favoured by the likes of Steven Gerrard and David Beckham in danger of going out of fashion given this preference for a simpler passing game.

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And yet, the question remains – if there can be a role for Shelvey at Swansea, a team that was among the top three for possession in last season’s Premier League, then the notion that a variety of passing might be incompatible with a neat and tidy approach does not stand up to scrutiny. Balance is key and at Swansea it is Shelvey who brings that balance. He is their risk-taker.

"His quality is there for everyone to see - his passing, the way he moves the ball, how he offers good angles and movements and fits into a defensive shape,” adds Monk. “He takes risks in losing the ball but it can come with great benefits. He makes things happen because of those risks. Of course, we look to keep the ball as much as possible but you need his type of player.”

That wonderful passing range is perhaps Shelvey’s stand-out asset. His 67 successful long passes so far this season have come at a rate of 5.5 per 90 minutes, more than any Swansea outfield player. Indeed, only Liverpool captain Gerrard produces significantly more long passes than that among Premier League midfielders.

As team-mates, Gerrard praised Shelvey as a talent with good vision who was willing to learn. But he remains a player still finding himself with work to do on his decision-making. What’s clear is that any delay to his progress will not be for a lack of ambition or courage on the ball. The stray passes must stop but don’t expect him to shy away from another Shelvey show at Anfield on Monday.

Watch Liverpool v Swansea live on Sky Sports 1 HD from 7pm on Monday