Jurgen Klopp has claimed that Diogo Jota is close to becoming ‘world-class’ and also admitted that the Portugal international is a ‘little bit better’ than the player he thought he was buying from Wolves.
The 25-year-old scored his 20th goal of the season with his delightful header that opened the scoring against Watford yesterday but the former Borussia Dortmund was keen to highlight the one thing that his side need to improve on.
“Since he came in he improved a lot, that is a little to do with his age, (but) he is growing into the top world-class striker role step by step,” said Klopp (via Football 365).
“He is delivering for Portugal pretty consistently, which is a difficult job to do with all the offensive talent they have, so he is actually the player we thought he would be and also a little bit better.”
The former Wolves man always seems to be in the right place at the right time and is such an instinctive finisher – he’s averaging a goal every other game for us this season.
He’s often deployed on the left-wing but has also flourished in the centre of the front three, something Klopp is very grateful of.
“It was always clear that Diogo is not a pure winger, Diogo is a striker who can play on the wing and defend the wing. Both wings, thank god,” added Klopp.
“He played for us all three positions upfront and did always really well.
“Where we struggle sometimes is being too static. This (the first goal) was a very fluent situation where Diogo was high up, a great cross and then if there is nobody there it is just a cross with no outcome.
“(But it was) a great goal. Absolutely. He is that guy. It was, for sure, always in him.
“I said it a couple of times: at Wolves he had a different job and he did that job that good that we thought, we want him.”
With his 14 Premier League strikes this term, our No. 20 is the league’s second top scorer behind teammate Mo Salah on 20.
We’ll need him to continue chipping in with goals as we head into a crunch set of fixtures.
Every game from now until the end of the season is massive, but this month we face Manchester City twice, a two-legged Champions League quarter-final tie with SL Benfica as well as league clashes with Manchester City, Everton and Newcastle.
This season has the potential to be truly special, the next few weeks will determine whether is or not.
#Ep42 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: Is Jota underappreciated? FA failing fans… and more!