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Roberto Firmino shouldn’t have a problem if Jurgen Klopp decides to stay with Diogo Jota for Liverpool’s Premier League clash with Manchester City.
That’s the opinion of Chris Kamara, who has praised the club’s recruitment process for bringing the forward to Anfield during the summer window.
Jota has gotten off to a spectacular start to his Liverpool career since his £ 45m summer trade from the Wolves.
He scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 win over Atalanta in the middle of the week, bringing his total of his first 10 appearances with the club to seven.
Firmino rested during the Champions League in Italy, and Klopp suggested that Jota’s game was adequate to exploit deficiencies in Atalanta’s defense.
(Image: PAOLO MAGNI / EPA-EFE / REX / Shutterstock)
Since then, there has been a great clamor for the Portuguese forward to keep his spot for this weekend’s encounter with last season’s runners-up Man City.
And Sky Sports expert Kamara believes Klopp should stick with Jota, suggesting that Firmino has no reason to “throw his toys out of the stroller.”
“It is clear that Jurgen Klopp has a little headache with the national team before Sunday’s game between Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino,” Kamara told Footstock. “It reminds me of the decision Mauricio Pochettino had to make in the Champions League final between Lucas Moura and Harry Kane, when, despite Lucas scoring a hat-trick in the semi-final, he chose a medium-fit Kane.
“I think when Pochettino looks back, he will realize that he made the wrong decision and in hindsight he should have gone with the player who was fit.
(Image: PA)
“Although it’s going to be a tough decision for Klopp, for a man who scored a hat-trick like Jota did in the Champions League, I think mentally you have to start over.
“If I’m Firmino, I don’t have a problem with that decision either: the man just scored a top hat-trick! You don’t throw your toys out of the stroller at those decisions because it’s being done for the benefit of the team and, based on that, I think Klopp has to go with Jota. “
Jota’s brilliant form at Liverpool has seen him enjoy the best 10-game starting streak for a Reds forward since Robbie Fowler in 1993.
But Kamara has suggested that he saw the potential in the 23-year-old during his three-year stay at Molineux.
Who should start for Liverpool this weekend against Manchester City? Give your opinion below
He added: “I must admit that I was not as surprised by Jota’s start to his career at Liverpool as others have.
“If you had asked Wolves fans who was the Liverpool player most likely to sign them, you imagined they would have said Raúl Jiménez, as he could give them a different dimension up front.
“I doubt that many would have said Jota, but that is the cleverness of the Liverpool hierarchy that he is the type of player they want, and he has already shown that the better the player you put on him, the better player he will be as well.”
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