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For many, it was seen as the perfect kind of problem for Jurgen Klopp.
With Diogo Jota in good shape, the Liverpool manager suddenly has a real dilemma ahead of Sunday’s visit to Manchester City.
Does the Reds coach keep faith in his Portuguese as free scorers for the always fundamental game with City, or does he follow his tried and true by returning Roberto Firmino to the fold?
It’s the archetypal national team headache, you might say.
Klopp himself, however, insists that he doesn’t need aspirin yet.
“Good performances never give me a headache,” he said after watching Jota score his first hat-trick for Liverpool red against Atalanta on Tuesday night.
“Tonight the decision was clear, first it made sense to use the good form that Diogo was in, and second, due to the way Atalanta plays and defends, we should use Diogo’s skills to help us.”
Klopp was right to embrace the virtues of his £ 45 million summer transfer.
Jota is Liverpool’s fit man right now, having scored seven goals since debuting six weeks ago.
His willingness to run with the ball, his ability to use both feet comfortably and his desire to show that he is, to borrow Pep Lijnders’ phrase, “a pressing monster” are ideal qualities to perform in Liverpool’s attacking system. .
So far, the Portuguese is showing that it fits him like a glove. Another feather on the Anfield recruiting team cap.
But, this being football, Klopp couldn’t detail his happiness with the new man without being asked about the one he replaced Tuesday night.
Surely, he wondered, Jota’s continued individual success would detract from Firmino’s hopes of leading the Liverpool line in the future.
Klopp didn’t feel the need to equate the two respective situations.
“The world is a bad place sometimes, that the moment someone is shining we immediately talk about another player who played what feels like 500 games in a row,” he said.
“Without Bobby Firmino, we wouldn’t even be in the Champions League.
“It will be on the team and for a lot of people in the world if you ask them ‘what makes Liverpool special?’ they would say ‘the way Bobby Firmino is playing’.
“For us it is important that we have more than 11.
“Tonight Diogo played a super, super game, but that doesn’t say anything about Bobby, and it has nothing to do with me causing headaches.
“I’m more than happy the boys played like they did tonight.”
If Klopp is generally correct about the two players and how they will both be needed this season and in the future, there is a big call on the horizon for the Liverpool manager.
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Breaking down the three forwards who have scored a combined 268 goals between them during their respective careers with Liverpool may, at first glance, seem like a risky move at home to their closest rivals on the field.
But a second look at the numbers suggests that the decision to go with Jota over Brazilian forward Firmino could be a win-win for everyone involved.
After all, Jota’s seven goals as a Liverpool player are more than the five Firmino has achieved throughout 2020.
That end result is unlikely to worry Klopp too much, given that Firmino’s role in the team is to grease the track for Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane rather than take it down himself.
But there is no denying that Firmino has had a jaded figure at times this season that needs a break.
Klopp, either inadvertently or intentionally, suggested it himself with the claim that Firmino had “played what feels like 500 games in a row.”
Perhaps now is the time to gently offer an opportunity to rest and recharge the batteries through an observation summary this weekend?
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