Diogo Jota arrived at Anfield from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2020 for a reported fee of £40 million.
Since then, he has become a key cog in Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool machine – be it coming off the bench as a super-sub or leading the line as hybrid false-nine/advanced forward.
The Portuguese striker has now recently sat down with That’s Football! to discuss his time at Liverpool so far, his relationship with Jurgen Klopp, and his aspirations for the season.
When Jota first arrived at Liverpool, he had the unenviable task of breaking up the famous trio of Sadio Mane, Bobby Firmino, and Mohamed Salah.
The 26-year-old has now revealed he backed himself to earn a sport amongst the famous forward line-up:
“Obviously by then [2020], everybody was speaking about them three, and rightly so”, Jota began.
“They won everything, and they were for sure one of the best [trios], but in my mind I always knew I was able to sneak into that and play however the manager wanted me to play.”
“That’s one of the first things he [Jurgen Klopp] told me as well was ‘I don’t want you here to be on the bench’.”
“I was lucky enough to score on my first appearances and that helped as well of course.”
Jota certainly had a debut to remember, scoring in a 3-1 win against Arsenal at Anfield during the 2020/21 season.
The Portuguese international was also quizzed on his relationship with Jurgen Klopp, saying:
“For us, he’s a figure we need to respect and listen to whatever he has to say because he likes to speak a lot!”, he grinned.
“We know that he is there for us, always very supportive as you might realize and loves his hugs as well.”
“We have been in a lot of situations with him over these three years and it seems like he always has the right thing to say.”
“He [Klopp] made me feel important and made me feel like I could have a big role in the Liverpool team.”
There have been so many accounts of Jurgen Klopp’s great man management, and now Diogo Jota’s testimony can be added to the extensive list.
