Diogo Jota may, at times, be regarded as Liverpool’s fourth-choice attacker behind Darwin Nunez, Mo Salah and Luis Diaz, though his contributions continue to be vital to the club’s success.
Pep Lijnders rightly pointed out the Portuguese international’s prolific nature and his ability to set the tone with the opening goal.
“Jota, we can say a lot. He is the same as Darwin [Nunez], he is one who creates by himself five or six chances a game,” the former NEC boss spoke in his pre-match press conference (via liverpoolfc.com) ahead of a Carabao Cup tie with Bournemouth. “What I like about Jota as well, he scores a lot of goals but it’s a lot of times the first one, and that’s the hardest one to score. That says a lot about Jots.”
The former Wolves attacker was on target once again in an impressive display against league strugglers Nottingham Forest as the Reds swept aside their opponents by three goals without reply.
READ MORE: Liverpool player’s seven-month injury hell finally over; could play next week
READ MORE: Liverpool contact fan over flag confiscation error during Nottingham Forest clash
An underrated player? No doubt about that
With six goal contributions in 12 games (across all competitions) this term (one goal or assist every 117.5 minutes) there’s no question that Jota is underrated.
Since the ill-fated 2022/23 campaign, only Darwin Nunez (15) and Mo Salah (29) have scored more league goals than the 26-year-old (13) from our current crop of forwards.
If he can replicate the kind of performance delivered against Steve Cooper’s men on a regular basis, one might imagine Jurgen Klopp will find it quite the headache selecting his first-XI moving forward.