Is in-form Diogo Jota now undroppable?
Diogo Jota, centre, takes the congratulations from his team-mates after scoring his second goal of the night in Liverpool’s 5-0 win at Atalanta. Picture: Stefano Nicoli/LaPresse via AP
Diogo Jota’s signing from Wolves caught many of Jurgen Klopp’s rivals by surprise this close season but in this most chaotic and unorthodox of campaigns, it may just be the final ingredient Liverpool needed to make sure they are able to dominate at home and abroad.
The Portuguese forward might have scored inside the opening minute, did score after 16, and again after 33 and 54, to make it six goals in his last four games for the Reds, and helped Liverpool make it three wins in as many Champions League group games.
In this, high-octane, fixture-congested Covid season, Liverpool and their competitors will need deep squads and every little bit of inspiration and flair they can muster.
How that description sums up Jota and how reasonable the £41m (€45.7m) Klopp paid Wolves for him in September now appears.
This time last year, as Liverpool’s title bid was gaining inexorable momentum, few would have imagined that their sublime, and often unplayable, front three of Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah, and Sadio Mane would ever be broken up on merit.
Indeed, Klopp has spent much of the last few years looking for an adequate stand-in who could even deputise purely on a rotational basis — Divock Origi and even Xherdan Shaqiri have had their moments but could never have been considered real rivals to the big three.
But Klopp now has a real decision to make ahead of Sunday’s big Premier League visit to Manchester City.
Yes, he may have been resting Firmino for that fixture when he named Jota to start ahead of him in Bergamo last night. But, after this and recent displays, surely a case has to be made now that Jota has supplanted him as a starter, if only because his goal output is far superior.
Atalanta, a team so tricky to play against that Pep Guardiola likened a fixture with them to a trip to the dentist last season, will certainly bear witness to Jota’s lethal efficiency.
It was plain to see on 16 minutes when Jota latched onto a through ball by Trent Alexander-Arnold, easily beat and then held off Jose Luis Palomino before lifting a nonchalant finish over Marco Sportiello from six yards.
And if that was an edge of the seat moment, Jota would do even better after the half hour when Joe Gomez’s long pass found him in a busy Atalanta penalty area. A superb touch with his left foot, a bounce that teed the ball up and Jota deposited it in the back of the net with a 10-yard right-foot shot.
That trip to the dentist was suddenly not looking quite so daunting and Klopp’s unwanted record of having lost all three of his Champions League trips to Italy as Liverpool manager looked like it was, similarly, going to end in gain rather than pain.
In fact, Jota might have got Klopp off to an even more relaxed start, taking a Curtis Jones pass and slaloming his way into the area seconds after kick-off only to be blocked by the dive of Sportiello.
And the Portuguese would not be denied a hat-trick on 54 minutes when Mane played him clean through beyond the home defence and Jota rounded the keeper outside the area before calmly slotting into an open net.
But, either side of Jota’s opener, there had been signs of how and why Atalanta have been amassing friends around Europe for their fearless approach in recent seasons.
Two good chances fell to Colombian Luis Muriel, both saved fairly unconvincingly by Alisson who was wrong-footed in the first instance before sticking out a blocking leg and who then needed two attempts to smother a powerful shot.
Still, if the first half had been about Jota, his two strike partners were determined not to be outshone and Salah and Mane both struck inside the opening four minutes of the second half to put the game beyond doubt.
The Egyptian struck within 90 seconds with a goal Salah made look far easier than it actually was as a poor Atalanta corner was booted upfield by Jones and gathered by Salah well inside his own half.
The striker sprinted over half the length of the field, Hans Hateboer trailing in his wake, before checking his run and curling an exquisite left-foot finish into the top corner of the Italian goal.
Mane’s efforts deserved a goal and it came just moments later, courtesy of Salah, who played a throw-in on to his team mate in space in the area and, with keeper Sportiello slow to react, the Senegal striker simply lifted the ball over him and into the net.
The Italians might have netted a consolation but Duvan Zapata struck the cross-bar then was denied by two solid saved from Alisson as Liverpool comfortably moved onto nine points in their group, just one from the 10 that are generally needed to see a team qualify for the knock-out stages.
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