Exclusive: Former Liverpool forward noticed “a very good sign” when Diogo Jota was subbed off

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Liverpool star Diogo Jota kicked-off the new Premier League season with a goal for the Reds against Norwich City on Saturday.

The Portuguese forward was taken off in the second-half for Roberto Firmino, who bagged himself a goal shortly afterward in the 3-0 win.

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Former Liverpool forward Stan Collymore exclusively told Empire of the Kop he noticed something about Jota, which is a positive.

From a striker’s perspective, all three of [Mo] Salah, Firmino and Jota will have gone to sleep the night before and said ‘let me get off the mark’ – the quicker the better,” he said.

Why? Because you’re basically testing yourself. You’re saying ‘right, if I get a goal today, that buys me the next match’ and then they can relax a little bit.

You saw the competitive nature of Liverpool’s squad with Jota when he went off, he looked really disappointed and that’s a very, very good sign.

He knows that Firmino is coming on and there are three positions for four players, and they’re all competing against each-other.”

While the players are all desperate to nail down starting spots, it’s important to remember they’re team-mates with a common goal

There is an undoubtable friendly competitiveness in the Liverpool squad – we’ve see it over the years with Salah and Sadio Mane, and that’ll be no different with Jota and Firmino.

The main thing to remember when it comes to seeing these players looking frustrated is that they all want the same thing – to score goals for the Reds and win trophies.

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