Diogo Jota’s £41million move to Liverpool from Wolverhampton Wanderers has flown under the radar but the 23-year-old deserves more hype.
Since moving to Anfield, Jota has scored three goals in three starts and has already shown that Jurgen Klopp can rest Sadio Mane at will without blunting his attack too much.
In fact, the Portugal international deserves more hype and if it weren’t for Thiago Alcantara joining the Reds, there would no doubt be more being written about his big-money move from Wolves.
Jota scored 16 goals and assisted 6 times last season so he has a ways to go to match his tally from last season but considering he has been used mostly as a sub, it will be impressive if he can get into double digits for goals again this term.
If he is able to do so, it will lighten the burden on Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah given that Roberto Firmino has struggled to hit the heights he reached in the 2017/18 season when he contributed to a goal 44 times.
The Brazilian’s role, first and foremost, is to create space for Mane and Salah and to trigger the press high up the pitch and yet his 12 goals and 13 assists last season show that he is not just a defensive forward as some opposition fans on Twitter like to claim.
While Liverpool’s defence is under pressure in the wake of Virgil van Dijk’s ACL injury, it is impressive how Jurgen Klopp’s attackers have shouldered the burden of winning games when it seems risky to see out a game by playing passively and focussing on keeping a clean sheet.
Only Spurs (16) have scored more goals than the Reds (15) in the Premier League and with back to back clean sheets in the Champions League, there are promising signs that Liverpool can come through the van Dijk injury unscathed this season.
Jota’s excellence off the bench will be vital to Liverpool putting teams away late on in games this season and as things stand, the two-footed winger is up for the challenge.