Exclusive: Former striker says Diogo Jota should have been brought onto the pitch earlier against Brighton

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Diogo Jota was brought onto the pitch with little more than ten minutes remaining during yesterday’s 2-2 draw with Brighton and Stan Collymore believes the substitution should have been made earlier.

The 50-year-old former Liverpool striker said, in an exclusive interview with Empire of the Kop“Diogo Jota should have come on at 60/65 minutes, not waited until 78 minutes.

“I think make those substitutions a little bit earlier, to force the issue … I always think the best time to make a substitution, in terms of being able to make an impact on the game, is around 65 minutes.

“78 [minutes] I think is asking a little bit too much”.

Hindsight is always a good thing but could Jurgen Klopp had made the change a bit earlier in the game?

All four of our attacking options are in good form this season and it’s hard to drop or replace any of them, but on a day when a two-goal lead was sacrificed, maybe a change could have been made earlier.

Handing the Portuguese forward just over ten minutes was a tough ask for him to have a real impact on the result and the No.20 failed to change the game during his time on the pitch.

Had he been given more time, who’s to say that he wouldn’t have added to our tally.

You can watch the full clip of Collymore’s thoughts on the Jota substitution in our exclusive interview, via our Twitter channel:

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