Jurgen Klopp hails Diogo Jota’s improvement into a ‘world class striker’

Jurgen Klopp has praised the continued improvement of Liverpool forward Diogo Jota, believing he is growing into a ‘world class striker’.

Jota bagged his 14th Premier League goal of the season – only teammate Mohamed Salah has registered more – in the Reds’ 2-0 win at home to Watford on Saturday, opening the scoring with his head after Joe Gomez’s inch-perfect cross.

Att1...

Speaking to the media post-match, Klopp praised Jota’s evolution as a forward, believing that he is gradually becoming a ‘world class’ option.

“Since he came in he improved a lot, that is a little to do with his age, he is growing into the top world class striker role step by step,” Klopp said.

“He is delivering for Portugal pretty consistently, which is a difficult job to do with all the offensive talent they have, so he is actually the player we thought he would be and also a little bit better.”

Liverpool signed Jota from Wolves in the summer of 2020, though he primarily played as a left-winger or second striker alongside a traditional number nine in Raul Jimenez at Molineux.

Jota’s ambidexterity – a third of his on-ball actions come with his supposed weaker left foot, per FBRef – means he is useful on either flank, but Klopp insists the Portugal international is best when playing through the middle.

“It was always clear that Diogo is not a pure winger, Diogo is a striker who can play on the wing and defend the wing. Both wings, thank God,” Klopp added.

“He played for us all three positions up front and did always really well.

“Where we struggle sometimes is being too static. This [the first goal] was a very fluent situation where Diogo was high up, a great cross and then if there is nobody there it is just a cross with no outcome.

“[It was] a great goal. Absolutely. He is that guy. It was, for sure, always in him.

“I said it a couple of times: at Wolves he had a different job and he did that job that good that we thought, we want him.”

Source of the article

Author: XenBet