Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has criticised Diogo Jota’s performance against Real Madrid by highlighting how many fouls he was giving away.
Liverpool are out of the Champions League after failing to overturn a heavy 5-2 first leg defeat against Real.
The Reds not only couldn’t find the net in Madrid but also conceded in the second half as Karim Benzema scored yet again.
A 1-0 defeat at the Bernabeu means Liverpool crash out with a 6-2 aggregate thumping; going 2-0 up at Anfield feels like a long, long time ago now.
This just wasn’t Liverpool’s night going forward, failing to break down Real despite Klopp going with four attackers in his starting XI.
That saw Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah out wide with Diogo Jota up top and Cody Gakpo as a number 10.
Jurgen Klopp highlights Diogo Jota problem in Liverpool defeat
Jota has been working his way back from injury of late, giving Klopp another option in the final third.
The Portuguese forward didn’t have his best night in the Spanish capital though.
Jota had just one shot, which wasn’t on target, along with one key pass and three dispossessions.
It wasn’t a great surprise when Jota was substituted with 56 minutes on the clock as Roberto Firmino came on.
One aspect of Jota’s game that really didn’t impress Klopp was the number of fouls he was giving away.
Jota committed three fouls on Wednesday night; no Liverpool played committed more.
Klopp admitted to Liverpool’s official website that ‘it was clear’ Jota can’t manage big minutes right now after being out for so long.
Klopp felt that the game was getting ‘harder and harder’ for Jota and counted up one, two and three fouls that he was giving away.
The German noted that this was unusual for Jota and was maybe a sign that he was a tad off in his timings.
“For Diogo, it was clear that he should not play now extremely long because he is still coming back from a long, long injury,” said Klopp. “You could see the game got harder and harder for him, little fouls there, one, two, three, he is not a player who is usually fouling so perhaps he comes a bit late,” he added.
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