In many ways, the Diogo Jota signing went under the radar this summer.
He was our most expensive buy, over £40m once all the money has gone to Wolves, but fans were too busy salivating (and quite rightly) over the fact we’d just bought Thiago from Bayern Munich.
The Spaniard has in fairness been jaw-dropping in the game and a half he’s featured, but sadly coronavirus and an injury has limited his availability.
Hopefully he’ll be back for West Ham this weekend, and if not, certainly Manchester City next.
Jota though has already bagged three goals and has been nothing short of faultless since debut.
It looked as though the Portugal international would simply be a sub for Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino – but his form has been so good that the boss was happy to rejig our formation to a 4-2-3-1 in order to get him a start v Sheffield United on Saturday.
That game was on Pay-Per-View – the Premier League’s bizarre new initiative to make some more money from the football matches on tv – although we’re at least happy to see the price has dropped to £10 from £15 following the multiple complaints.
Trent Alexander-Arnold has lauded Jota and actually claims he was keen on Liverpool signing the 23-year-old after facing him last season in the Premier League.
“That’s exactly what you want from a new signing. He’s slotted right in on the pitch and off the pitch. He works well with us, works well for us – I think we all noticed that when we played against him in the last few seasons at Wolves and how good a player he is. So to have him on our team now is something we’re happy with. Like you said, he’s hit the ground running and hopefully there’ll be many more goals and a lot more success with him in the team,” Trent told the official website.
Roberto Firmino scored last time out in the Premier League, but his place is still under pressure, we’d suggest.
With both Sadio Mane and Mo Salah able to play centrally, it could be that the Brazilian, who is not in the best vein of form, could make way for Jota v West Ham this weekend.
In fairness though, Salah and Mane always perform much better when he’s on the pitch, so perhaps his impact should be judged more on the goals his colleagues score.
