Lethal finisher
There’s probably not a Red across the world who didn’t lament the absence of Jota as Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz wasted one opportunity after another at Old Trafford.
Salah is obviously one of the finest forwards English football has ever seen, and he salvaged a point with his nerveless late penalty against United, but the Egyptian hasn’t been his usual lethal self during Liverpool’s last four games.
Diaz and Nunez, meanwhile, combined for the opener, but both were guilty of characteristically erratic finishing on the day, while Cody Gakpo made no impact off the bench.
It was a similar story in the Europa League quarter-final loss to Atalanta. Nunez made an absolute mess of a through-ball, while Gakpo was painfully ineffective. Even Salah and Diaz proved utterly incapable of turning the game around when they came on.
The one positive on an otherwise horribly negative night was an energetic and encouraging 15-minute cameo from Jota, Liverpool’s most efficient finisher.
‘Only one who can compete is Fowler’
Salah, Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen, Fernando Torres, Luis Suarez – Liverpool have had some incredible goal scorers during the Premier League era, so former defender Jamie Carragher caused quite the stir when he claimed in January that Jota is the pick of the bunch. The Sky Sports pundit even went so far as to say that “the only one who can compete with him is Fowler.”
It was a bold statement, particularly when one considers that the striker Liverpool fans refer to as ‘God’ scored 120 times during his first stint at Anfield, but one could see where Carragher was coming from. When fully fit and firing, Jota is as clinical as they come.
He has better total shot and big-chance conversion rates this season (23.73 and 66.67 percent, respectively) than not only his Liverpool team-mates Salah (19.8%, 55.6%), Nunez (11.9%, 20.9%), Gakpo (16.3%, 36%) and Diaz (12.5%, 45%) – but also superstar duo Erling Haaland (20.3%, 33.3%) and Kylian Mbappe (22%, 44.7%).
‘Made for our style of play’
He also offers so much to Liverpool’s game with his all-round play. Carragher pointed out that when Liverpool signed Jota from Wolves in 2020 for £41 million ($52m), “plenty of people were scratching their heads”, but Klopp had been enamoured with the Portugal international from the first time he saw him play for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side. The Liverpool boss knew he was “made for our style of play” – and he was spot on.
Jota immediately looked right at home at Anfield, scoring seven goals in his first 10 outings and turning sceptics into believers with his relentless pressing and awesome ability to play anywhere up front. Klopp was also bowled over by Jota’s maturity and mental strength.
In terms of technique, tactics and temperament, he was just the perfect fit for Liverpool. His one weakness was physical.
