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International breaks tend to seem like an eternity at the best of times, especially when you enter them after a crushing defeat like the one Liverpool suffered at Villa Park. This particularly sad two-week interlude has really dragged on.
However, in recent days, the dark cloud that persisted after Villa has started to dissipate. The return to training of Thiago Alcântara and Sadio Mané after their respective periods of isolation imposed by Covid has provided a very welcome boost ahead of Saturday’s Merseyside derby, along with Jordan Henderson and Joel Matip, both returning from injury.
Meanwhile, Roberto Firmino polished his shooting boots with a brace for Brazil against Bolivia in qualifying for the weekend’s World Cup, which may it simply rekindles the spark that was missing in front of Liverpool’s goal, and Xherdan Shaqiri offered a reminder of the unique quality he can still bring with a great performance against Germany on Tuesday night.
Most striking of all, however, was Diogo Jota’s masterclass last night, preparing one and scoring the other two in Portugal’s 3-0 Nations League victory over Sweden. It’s a tough task to go straight into the void in the form of Cristiano Ronaldo on the left side of Portugal’s three-pronged front line without there being any kind of recognizable shortage in quality, but Jota did exactly that, and more.
It wasn’t just that he got reinforcement and assist, but the way he did it was so impressive, as was his all-round performance, which included 4/5 successful dribbles, 5/8 successful duels, and 87% passing accuracy.
In less than a minute, he picked up the ball in the left-back position on the edge of Portugal’s penalty area, carefully exchanging passes with William Carvalho before overtaking three Swedish players and aggressively heading towards the goal, shooting only narrowly from 20 – yards. Despite missing the mark, he was an early warning sign of things to come, epitomizing the speed, confidence and outspokenness that make Jota so difficult for rival defenses to handle.
His assist for Bernardo Silva’s first goal showed excellent conscience, throwing himself from behind before selflessly squaring the ball through the goal rather than shooting from a tighter angle. The first of his two goals of the night showed the kind of intelligent movement between the full back and the opposition center-back from which he scored so many goals for Wolves, perfectly controlling João Cancelo’s center from the right wing, exactly the kind of delivery. the one Trent Alexander-Arnold specializes in, before coldly slamming it into the bottom corner.
His second-half hit to make it 3-0 was even better, initially grabbing a direct pass from Carvalho near the left touchline before passing Mikael Lustig into the box, leaping in to leave two Swedish defenders scattered desperately in the floor and clinically aiming. his shot inside the near post by Robin Olsen. It is this outside-in diagonal race that Mané and Mohamed Salah have become masters for Liverpool, so seeing Jota exhibiting something so similar so effectively is a very encouraging sign.
It was already evident from his performances against Arsenal (twice) how perfectly Jota fit into the system after such a short integration period, and even amid the disaster that unfolded against Villa, he was one of the (few) more players. Liverpool brilliants in a night to forget. Despite the perception that he was hired primarily to provide ‘cover’ for the three forwards, Jota is already at a level where he can expect to start a significant number of games, especially now that the league’s midweek matches Champions are on the agenda. .
Either substituting Mané as a direct change as the left forward in the usual 4-3-3 fashion, playing from the left in a 4-2-3-1 system that allows Jürgen Klopp to place four attackers ahead of an El double midfield pivot, or even allowing one of Mané or Salah to play as an alternative to Firmino in the middle, Jota opens up so many exciting possibilities for this team.
His outstanding impact for Portugal last night served to emphasize the caliber of the player Liverpool now have in their hands. It is much more than a backup option, and these next few weeks are an excellent opportunity to prove it.
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