After the 2019-2020 Premier League championship season, Liverpool surprised everyone when they recruited Diogo Jota from Wolverhampton. At that time, Jurgen Klopp had in his hands the trio Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino, so spending £45 million to bring in a striker at that time faced many doubts.
However, after 4 seasons playing at Anfield, Jota has not only proven himself to be an important piece in the "The Kop" attack. He is gradually becoming one of the best strikers in this team.
Since Salah participated in the 2023 AFCON with the Egyptian team, Diogo Jota has been the standout star with 2 goals and 2 assists after 4 matches. In particular, a double and an assist helped Jota get 9.2 points from Sofascore in a 4-0 win over Bournemouth in round 21 of the Premier League.
Its hard to explain.I just appeared in time, in the right place, at the right time, as an instinctive reflex.Fortunately, this is helping the team, Jota shared after the match against Bournemouth.
Witnessing Jota's performance, former player Jamie Carragher praised the Portuguese star on Sky Sports: Jurgen Klopp once said that Jota is an intelligent and versatile player who can play well in any position in attack.That was shown in today's match.Taking Jota to Salah's familiar right wing position helped Liverpool win.
I was a teammate of Michael Owen, Luis Suarez, Fernando Torres and Robbie Fowler but Jota is really different. He was the best shooter, taking every opportunity to shoot. Jota is probably one of Liverpool's best signings in the last 6 years."
Former player Jamie Carragher is completely well-founded when making such comments about the 27-year-old striker. According to Opta Analyst, Jota only took 141 minutes to score, this figure surpassed Fowler (159 minutes) and Owen (143 minutes) but behind Suarez (139 minutes), Sturridge (136 minutes), Salah (132 minutes) and Torres (121 minutes).
In contrast, Jota has achieved a higher conversion rate from shot to goal than all with 19.3% (38 goals after 197 shots). As for players who have scored over 20 goals for Liverpool, only Divock Origi (20.8%) has a better rate.
The striker's ability to finish powerfully and accurately has improved since wearing the Liverpool shirt. Previously, in the Premier League alone, the Portuguese international only had an efficiency of 12.6% for Wolves (16 goals in 67 matches).
In his first season playing for Liverpool, Jota achieved an efficiency of 19.6% (9 goals after 46 shots). This rate dropped to 16.7% in the 2021-2022 season (15 goals after 90 shots). The following season, Jota suffered a long-term injury and scored just 7 goals in 35 shots, achieving an efficiency of 20%. This achievement was quickly repeated by the Portuguese striker after only 21 rounds of the Premier League this season, with 26 shots, achieving an efficiency of up to 26.9%.
Notably, Jota's 7 goals in the Premier League this season have been scored with an expected goals (xG) of only 3.27. Except for blocked shots, the player born in 1996 has 7 goals after 11 shots on target. These are all long corners in the goal, showing the Portuguese striker's accurate and diverse finishing ability.
In all competitions, Jota is the attacking player with the highest conversion rate of shots into goals for Liverpool this season at 26.2% (11 goals with an xG of 5.34). This achievement surpasses Mohamed Salah (21.7%), Cody Gakpo (19.6%), Luis Diaz (13.3%) and Darwin Nunez (11%).
Not only that, Jota's goals came at extremely important moments. According to statistics, Jota has scored 38 goals in 91 appearances for Liverpool in the Premier League. Of which, there were 12 opening goals, 12 sealing goals, 16 helping Liverpool take the lead and 6 equalising goals. In addition, every time Jota scores, Liverpool have never lost in the Premier League.
Scoring many goals is clearly a measure to evaluate a classy striker. However, Jota did more than that. He always knows how to shine and score goals at important moments. The Portuguese striker makes scoring look easier, when he can finish accurately and powerfully from many different angles.
At Liverpool, the media and fans have always paid attention to Mohamed Salah or Darwin Nunez. But few people notice that Diogo Jota is improving himself more and more, to become one of the most classy strikers in Liverpool's history.
