Thierry Henry has claimed that Jurgen Klopp shouldn’t have started Diogo Jota in Liverpool’s visit to Villarreal in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Liverpool survived a major scare to reach the final of the competition, beating the Spanish outfit 5-2 on aggregate – and 3-2 on the night.
Unai Emery’s side led 2-0 at the break following a dismal first-half performance from the Reds, in which Jota only managed 13 touches of the football, according to WhoScored.
Naturally, Klopp took the Portugal international off at the break and swapped him for Luis Diaz, who had a massive impact during the second 45 minutes and scored one of the Premier League outfit’s three goals.
Speaking to CBS Sport at half time, the iconic Arsenal striker called on the German manager to introduce the Colombia international, who’s been a revelation since joining Liverpool this past January, and argued that it simply wasn’t the right type of encounter for the former Wolverhampton Wanderers attacker.
Henry said: “It’s not a game for Diogo Jota. He’s a player who arrives late in the box from crosses, when you dominate. He’s kind of good [in these games]. But Luis Diaz can bail you out by dribbling. You need someone who can dribble past players right now. Salah can do that. Mane can do that. But maybe not Diogo Jota like that.”
The 25-year-old has been immense for Liverpool this season, netting 21 goals across all competitions.
But Henry is right; Jota simply wasn’t having an impact at all and the fact he only managed 13 touches of the ball demonstrates that.
One of Klopp’s many strengths as a manager is identifying a weakness and swiftly acting decisively to repair the problem – and to say he achieved that by swapping Jota for Diaz would be an enormous understatement.
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