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If there was any doubt as to why Liverpool felt compelled to shell out up to £ 45m for Diogo Jota, he has last week provided ample evidence to reinforce the canny logic behind the move.
In 100 minutes of action against Arsenal in the two games at Anfield, Jota made an enormously promising first impression that showed why he has exactly the right offensive signing profile for this team right now.
Scoring a debut goal (in the league) is an immediate burden on the shoulders for any new signing, but especially for one arriving as the most expensive striker in Liverpool history. It was a precise and instinctive punch from Jota to close out the win against Arsenal on Monday night at a point in the match where Liverpool should have been out of sight for a long time.
However, what was so encouraging beyond the goal itself was the fact that he could have gone away with a hat-trick after getting into action in the 80th minute. First shooting into the side net from a narrow angle after being handpicked by Mohamed Salah in the box, Jota could well have scored another after receiving a pass from Gini Wijnaldum, only to a confusion with Salah that robbed him of the opportunity.
The fact that he reached those goal positions is, in itself, a really positive sign. As Jürgen Klopp later mentioned, Jota only has “about 20 percent of the information on what we do”, but despite being so early in terms of the onboarding process, he is already playing like he’s been part of this team for much much. more than a couple of weeks.
When Sadio Mané left after playing brilliantly into the night, Liverpool were able to maintain a similar level of threat down the left side following the introduction of Jota and, more importantly, without disrupting the system at all, how much to It has often been evident in the past with Divock Origi plugging the gaps in the front three, because it’s a totally different style of footballer. Jota, on the other hand, fits perfectly into Liverpool’s way of playing.
It was a similar case on Thursday, albeit when it started as part of a much-changed Liverpool lineup that included numerous fringe players and youngsters who had never played together before. Even more than Mohamed Salah and Takumi Minamino, Jota was Liverpool’s main attacking threat, causing Arsenal all sorts of problems at all times while attacking from the left side.
He came very close to winning a penalty in the first half when Dani Ceballos brought him down just on the edge of the area, and it was his cushioned header that culminated in Minamino’s rebound off the crossbar shortly before half-time.
Jota kept plugging into the second half as Liverpool sought the opening match that deserved their dominance, and came closer than anyone else with a diagonal run to grab Curtis Jones’s ball over the top, expertly lowering it to pass. ghost Sead Kolasinac before taking a strong save from Bernd Leno with a powerful punch. It’s exactly this kind of outside-in movement that is a hallmark of Mané and Salah’s games, so seeing Jota replicate it so effectively was another indicator of how well it will fit.
He had also threatened earlier in the second half, driving aggressively through Arsenal’s midfield before winning a corner when Leno parried his shot behind. The intelligence and intensity of his pressure were also remarkable, and can only be expected to improve further as he becomes more in tune with the details of Liverpool’s off-the-ball moves in the weeks and months to come.
It’s just a very small sample size at this stage, of course, but with so little preparation, seeing Jota snap in and act this way right away can only bode well for all that is to come.
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