Manuel Sanchez Gomez
London, Apr 5 (EFE) .- The emergence of Diogo Jota is one of the few positive news that Liverpool has received this season. He came from Wolverhampton Wanderers for 40 million, he shone at the beginning of the campaign, he was seriously injured and now he is the great dagger that Jürgen Klopp has to damage Real Madrid.
The Portuguese, one of the many represented by Jorge Mendes who revalued in England through Wolves, is the trigger that Liverpool needed in attack. His two bets in the summer were Thiago Alcántara in midfield, with still a lot to prove, and Jota up front, and the little attacker has gotten away with how little he has been able to play.
Because the year started very plugged, making up for the shortcomings of a team that was already showing signs of exhaustion. In his first eight Premier matches he scored five goals, all of them decisive in keeping Liverpool in the title race, from which he would later crash with a crash. He was personally stopped by a knee injury that kept him out of the competition from December to March.
Jota, who had a short-lived stint at Atlético de Madrid between 2016 and 2018, can start as a winger, to rest Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané and it is the position he used the most in his time with Wolves, when the ‘nine’ It was run by Raúl Jiménez.
But at Liverpool he has had to assume the role of being the main striker and that would be the job Klopp has in store for him this Tuesday. The German is now torn between two options. Give ownership to the third leg of the trident, a Roberto Firmino who returned to Arsenal with more shadows than lights, after three games out due to injury, or put a Jota who is on a roll with three goals with Portugal and a double against Arsenal.
Firmino is the connector, the one that combines with Mané and Salah. He is not a scorer and he has never stood out for his figures in front of goal, but he acts as a link, as if he were just another midfielder, as if he were the ’10’ of the team. Even Klopp, even knowing the best state of Jota, can start him to exploit the great characteristic of Jota, his explosiveness and revolution.
What he has shown against Arsenal is the best example of what Jota is. He came out in the 61st minute 0-0 and in 64 put Liverpool ahead with a header. The header is not his best virtue, but Jota is not only a shock, but is multipurpose.
If Klopp does not play with him from the beginning, it will be a warning for Real Madrid of the change of pace that the match will undergo when Jota hot on the band and prepares to leave. It is the ace that the German keeps and whose performance can decant a tie whose focus has gone from the ‘pique’ Sergio Ramos-Salah, to the small Portuguese winger. EFE
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