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Jurgen Klopp may have perfect new plan for ‘world-class’ attacker at Liverpool
If the 2021/22 campaign saw Diogo Jota elevate himself into the “world-class” bracket in the eyes of Jurgen Klopp, then last season left Liverpool without a major star for far too long.
After registering two goals at Arsenal in January of last year to help the Reds reach the Carabao Cup final, Jota was singled out for some special praise from his manager, who gushed: “Diogo Jota [is] on fire.
“We were completely convinced when he arrived at the club he would help us massively. Since he is here he has made another step, he has turned into a really world-class striker.”
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The Portugal international ended that season with a total of 21 goals across all competitions and was rewarded for his rapid progress with a new, long-term contract less than two years into an initial deal that was penned in September 2020.
For Liverpool, Jota represented something of the poster boy for how they would ideally like to operate. Here was a younger and less-heralded player from further down football’s pyramid who was fulfilling his potential and growing into a top talent thanks to the platform and help he had been given at Anfield.
The departure of Sadio Mane last summer was only set to increase the importance and goalscoring responsibility on the former Wolves man before injury struck. It would become something of a theme for the Portuguese forward and he was badly missed as a result.
First, a hamstring issue that was initially detected on international duty 12 months ago was aggravated during an early pre-season training session out in Thailand in July. It was the start of problems that would plague Jota on and off for the best part of six months and he would be limited to just 12 Premier League starts as a result.
A 10-minute cameo at Goodison Park in early September was the attacker’s first appearance of the term but he was unable to build up any real momentum after that as Klopp’s side struggled for form. Their 63-game marathon campaign just a few months previous continued to cast a long shadow over a club attempting to to the well once more.
Jota was making just his second Premier League start when he suffered a serious and long-term calf injury in the closing stages of the 1-0 win over Manchester City on October 16. It was an issue that wrecked his World Cup dream with Portugal and sidelined him for a further four months, when he once more made his comeback as a substitute against Everton, this time in a 2-0 win at Anfield.
By the time he made his first start, however – in a goalless draw at Crystal Palace in late February – the Portugal man had found himself in a team that was well out of any title race and still struggling to find its collective consistency in an effort to chase down those in the top four.
His goal drought stretched past the year mark and it looked at times as though he was suffering with a crisis of confidence just as much as the fitness concerns.
That all changed at Leeds in mid-April when his fortunes were dramatically transformed by one piece of play in the first half at Elland Road. After a wretched half hour or so where he conceded possession as many as 11 times on the left of the front three, it was his reliance on his unquenchable work rate that coaxed him back to form.
After enduring a tough half hour, the tireless frontman chased back to dispossess Georginio Rutter to launch a one-man counter-attack. His lengthy dribble of the Leeds half ended with a perfectly-weighted through ball to Mohamed Salah who clinically dispatched for Liverpool’s second in a 6-1 win.
Suddenly, Jota was a different player. He ended his 372-day and 32-game wait for a goal in Liverpool colours with a well-taken curl beyond Ilan Meslier from Curtis Jones’s pass in the second half.
Jota had a hand in the third of six on the night when he won the ball back on the edge of the box with a well-timed tackle before playing a one-two with Andy Robertson, who then supplied Cody Gakpo to lay in Salah.
But the No.20 still had a more telling contribution up his sleeve; his second of a memorable night in Yorkshire came when he confidently dispatched Jordan Henderson’s pass across the box with a first-time finish.
They were two of a seven-goal flourish in the closing weeks of the season. A couple more were added to the tally against Nottingham Forest in a 3-2 win before one of the moments of the campaign at Anfield saw him net the winning goal of a remarkable match against Tottenham in the 94th minute.
A last-day brace in the 4-4 draw with Southampton saw him bring his 30th and 31st goals in the Premier League for Liverpool and how the Reds’ season might have panned out differently had they had Jota fit throughout – particularly during a difficult January when Luis Diaz and Roberto Firmino were also injured at a time when new arrival Cody Gakpo was still adjusting.
The initial pre-season injury to Jota in Thailand was one of the reasons Klopp has been keen to switch around the summer schedule for Liverpool in the coming weeks. Rather than embark on a long-haul and commercially driven jaunt first, the players will instead undertake a more arduous, fitness-based training camp in Germany before their less physically taxing visit to the Far East.
Injuries to too many key players last summer, Jota included, has made Klopp determined to ensure there are no such problems to trip up his team once more as they attempt to wrestle back their Champions League status in the 23/24 season.
A full complement of the frontline might also involve something of a tactical re-think for Klopp. Jota spent most of his time in the Liverpool team last season on the left of the front three to accommodate either Gakpo or Darwin Nunez down the centre.
While Diaz continued to find his way back to fitness following his own six-month absence with a serious knee injury, it was a case of needs-must for Klopp and Jota’s ability to defend from the front and the aforementioned work rate made him a viable option for the left side.
There can be little denying, though, that Jota’s best work comes as something of a penalty-box predator and he can justifiably make a case for being considered the best finisher at Liverpool.
All seven of his goals last season showcased the variety to Jota’s ability to finish chances. Four came with his right foot, two with his left and it was his instincts as a poacher that allowed him to break the deadlock in that 3-2 win over Forest with a close-range header.
With Diaz expected to be up to speed over the summer and Nunez and Gakpo both capable of also playing down that side, is there an argument to be made to move Jota more centrally once more now the less tactically flexible Roberto Firmino has ended his eight years on Merseyside?
Jota scores the sorts of goals that others don’t in this Liverpool team and it’s a valuable commodity for a squad who only had two players break the double-figures barrier in the league in Salah and Firmino, who has since departed as a free agent.
As Klopp goes about drawing up a new Liverpool blueprint for next season, the ‘lad from Portugal’ – to quote that famous terrace anthem – shining as a dyed-in-the-wool poacher is something serious for the manager to ponder as he aims to spread the goalscoring burden across more of his squad going forward.
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