How Liverpool unearthed 'RELENTLESS' attacker

Liverpool have long been hailed for their high-quality recruitment. Over the course of the last decade of so, the club have managed to bring in players who have gone on to be not only consistent but emerged as club legends in their own right.

The likes of Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson led the Jurgen Klopp era while newer players like Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister have starred in recent seasons too.

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Diogo Jota is another example of that clever recruitment, joining the club in 2020 from Wolves for around £41 million.

Certain eyebrows were raised at the time when the Portugal international made the step up to Liverpool with other players such as Ismaila Sarr, Timo Werner and Jonathan David reported to be on the club’s shortlist.

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Jota joined Wolves when they were in the Championship and had scored at a modest rate during his two full Premier League seasons with the club.

But Liverpool’s decision-making has proven spot on in the five years since with Jota scoring consistently for the club and helping his side to an FA Cup and two EFL Cup titles to date.

It seems now that the 28-year-old was perhaps undervalued by his former club with Jota going on to net 64 goals in 178 outings for the Reds.

RELENTLESS Jota stars for Liverpool

Liverpool’s former Lead Recruitment Analyst, Patrick Montgomery, recently explained the process that went into Jota’s signing to the Breakdown - an offshoot of the Overlap.

He detailed how the Reds’ recruiters had discovered a “relentless” characteristic in Jota’s play and one he was able to continue to exploit at Anfield.

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"It's always going to be beneficial if you're watching a standout player playing in a team that has a similar style to you because then you can say 'right, they play 4-3-3, inverted wingers, out-to-in runs,' and you can go 'he could do this for us' or 'he could do this’,” he said.

"I think Jota is a good example. When he was at Wolves, he didn't necessarily get involved too much in back-to-goal play, link play, but the one thing he was relentless at was attacking the box, out–to-in-runs, back post.

“And then that translated really well when he joined the club, that he was able to kind of, and he still is, able to replicate it.

"Whereas you might look from the outside and go 'oh, that's a slightly strange signing,' or not strange signing, but a different signing, it's not necessarily a player from a top-four club, but it's somebody you could say 'he could fit into the system'.”

Will Jota be sold this summer?

The only question mark against Jota over the last few seasons has been his reliability from a fitness perspective.

When fit and firing he is Liverpool’s best striker but those fitness issues have led to suggestions that he could be sacrificed next summer.

Arsenal have been reported to be interested and there is no question that the Reds have got good value from their initial investment whatever happens this summer.

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