Jamie Carragher has singled out one Liverpool player who’s proven to be ‘a steal’ for the Reds and ‘sums up’ the club’s transfer recruitment in recent years.
In September 2020, LFC completed the £41m acquisition of Diogo Jota from Wolves (BBC Sport), and the £140,000-per-week attacker (Capology) has proven to be a tremendous success at Anfield.
The 27-year-old netted twice in the 4-0 win at Bournemouth on Sunday, after which the former Liverpool defender sang his praises.
Speaking on Sky Sports, Carragher said of the Portugal forward: “He sums up Liverpool’s recruitment. Over the past five or six years people always say Liverpool’s recruitment is great but it’s, I’m not saying it’s easy, but sometimes there are really good players out there and you go and buy them.
“He’s a player who was in and out of the Wolves team. When he was bought, a lot of people were scratching their heads and thinking ‘I don’t get that’.
“Liverpool looked at the underlying numbers, where he took his shots from, how many times he took shots, his xG. All these things Liverpool looked into and now you look at it and think that’s a steal.”
Jota is averaging roughly one goal every 100 minutes on the pitch this season, netting 11 times in 1,169 minutes of action during the current campaign (Transfermarkt).
That’s actually an even more clinical strike rate than Mo Salah’s 18 goals in 2,045 minutes (one every 113.61 minutes, via Transfermarkt), which highlights just how lethal a poacher Liverpool have in the 27-year-old.
Some Reds fans may have been surprised when the club parted with £41m for him in 2020, but a return of 52 goals in 135 games for the Anfield giants (Transfermarkt) shows that it was money very well spent.
Klopp would’ve been looking to his attackers to compensate for the Egyptian’s absence during the Africa Cup of Nations, and Jota has done just that by supplying an assist in the FA Cup win at Arsenal a fortnight ago and netting twice as Bournemouth were put to the sword yesterday.
Liverpool have become renowned for their shrewd transfer dealings during the German’s managerial reign, and the Portugal forward is a prime example of how the club got it absolutely right, eschewing bigger ‘names’ who would’ve commanded far heftier fees without guaranteeing the same return on investment.
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