Steve McManaman has lauded Liverpool forward Diogo Jota after he netted a brace during his side’s demolition job of helpless Leeds United at Elland Road on Monday night.
Going into the Premier League showdown in Yorkshire, Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool had yet to score against a bottom-half team away from home this season and Diogo Jota hadn’t scored in over a year.
Well, all of that was put to bed, with the Reds hitting Leeds for six and Jota netting a brace.
It needs to be noted that the 26-year-old has had injury issues stemming from the back end of last season. He had 15 Premier League goals to his name last season, before injuries started to hurt him.
Since then, the former Wolves man has taken his time to get back, but he got better and better during last night’s win over relegation-threatened Leeds.
McManaman spoke about how Jota ‘wasn’t at his best’ during the first period, but those two goals have now put the ‘confidence’ back into his game, as he told Premier League Productions (17/04/23 at 10:05 pm).
“He’s had a hard season with injury worries,” said McManaman. “He’s looked like he has had injury worries. He has taken his time to get back.
“I thought in the first half he wasn’t at his best, either. So, getting a couple of goals and that enjoyment back and confidence will help him.
“He was a superstar player for Liverpool last year and the year he joined. But injuries do happen and they do curtail people at times. It does take people time to get back to full fitness, especially when the team isn’t playing as well.”
JOTA IS AN UNDERRATED FIGURE
The Portugal international is an underrated goalscorer on Merseyside, especially given that he isn’t the main man and he has previously played third fiddle to the likes of Mohamed Salah and the now-departed, Sadio Mane.
There’s no doubt that if Jota can remain injury-free, then he has the ability to hit 20 Premier League goals in a season.
He was about to hit those numbers 12 months ago, before injury halted his campaign, and whilst he will want to just bring some life to the end of this current season, it will be interesting what he produces next term.
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