Diogo Jota highlights 'unpredictable' teammate as he addresses Liverpool's attacking competition

Diogo Jota has insisted that competition for place is a good thing, as Liverpool signed off pre-season with a 3-1 victory and more goals for their attacking contingent.

The Reds strike force of Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz, Darwin Nuñez, Cody Gakpo and Jota contributed an impressive 15 goals across five pre-season outings.

The 26-year-old Portuguese forward scored the Reds' second of the night at Deepdale on Monday – his fourth in pre-season – and is a strong contender to start against Chelsea this Sunday in the Premier League opener. However, competition is fierce.

Speaking after the game, Jota claimed that rather than being a negative, the fight for place is pushing the attackers on to up their performance levels.

READ MORE: 3 things we learned from Liverpool's last pre-season game against Darmstadt

“I think inside competition is always good, [you] push yourself to the limit and it’s good for us because we have the options," Jota said, via Liverpoolfc.com.

“We will have loads of games and will need everyone, so it’s very helpful that we can be like that.”

Diaz was another scorer on Monday night, adding the Reds' third in the second half with a wicked flick from a corner.

Jota also highlighted the tricky Colombian's unpredictability as a big strength.

"He’s unpredictable, he’s that kind of winger who goes one-v-one and can create chances from nothing and it’s very helpful for us when we reach, especially the final third, to be able to do something with the ball. That’s always helpful and I think last season he had an injury as well and hopefully this season he can crack on and show us what he has to offer," he said.

Discussing what he's taken away from this pre-season campaign, Jota added: "[we've taken] A lot, especially physically obviously we’ve been working a lot [on that]. The way we want to play is always intense so that’s key for us to improve and I think we showed offensively we created some good goals but we also conceded some.

"Today it was only one but we want to improve that as well because if you don’t concede you are always closer to winning."