Liverpool have confirmed the signing of Wolves and Portugal forward Diogo Jota in a deal worth around £41million.
Manager Jurgen Klopp has been speaking about the Reds’ newest recruit, and the German is more than impressed with his new offensive option.
Speaking to the club’s official website shortly after the signing was confirmed, the boss explained how Jota is the perfect Liverpool player as he’s versatile and isn’t shy of pressing the opposition.
“He’s a player who gives us so many options to use him,” Klopp said. “He’s 23 years old, still far away from being kind of a finished article, so much potential. He has the speed, he can combine, can defend, can press.
“It makes it just more unpredictable and gives us real options for different systems because he can play pretty much all three positions up front in a 4-3-3, if we play with four midfielders he can play both wings.
MORE: (Video) What Nuno said about Jota hours before Liverpool transfer was confirmed
“So, these kinds of things. It’s just nice. And he has some natural things which we have in our game, like this desire and the greed and the direction.
“He is part of this unbelievable Portuguese generation in the moment, where they have really a lot of obviously quite skilled players. We saw the Portuguese team last time, it’s quite impressive.
“So, I’m really happy to have him here. And on top of that, a really good guy and really happy to be here.”
Based on the boss’ comments, don’t be surprised if we see Jota stand-in for all of the front three at times this season while his best position is figured out.
The forward’s versatility will have been key to Klopp’s decision to go for him in a big way, but his favoured spot at Wolves was on the left-wing.
With the options of Takumi Minamino and now Jota, the boss will be feeling his team is much more prepared for the lengthy season ahead.
Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri have both shown they’re more than capable stand-ins at times, but even though they’ve had big moments – they aren’t players who will strike fear in the opposition.
If Taki continues on the righteous path he’s been on since the start of pre-season, and if Jota proves his worth, the Reds’ second string could be as fearsome at the starting eleven.