No goals in 11 months - but the Diogo Jota hate is unfair

Sam McGuire

• 1 Mar 2023 11:05 GMT
• 5 min read

Only five players scored more goals than Diogo Jota in the Premier League last season and yet he is now without a goal since April 2022.

The Liverpool attacker finished with 15 despite appearing in just a little over 2,300 top-flight minutes. Mohamed Salah, Heung-Min Son, Harry Kane, Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mane were the only players to better the Portugal international’s season and three of those were penalty takers and all but Ronaldo had over 2,700 minutes to their name last term.

At one stage of the campaign, it appeared as though the Liverpool No.20 would challenge for the Golden Boot. The 26-year-old had 10 goals and an assist in 17 appearances (1,223 minutes) and had one of the highest Expected Goal averages in the entire league. He was relentless for the Reds and a master at getting himself into high-value areas.

READ MORE: European Golden Shoe 2022/23: Haaland, Osimhen and Kane in top three

He was spearheading the attack in the absence of Roberto Firmino and all but one of his appearances were as a centre-forward. Jota was deployed on the left in Liverpool’s 5-0 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford.

The arrival of Luis Diaz changed Jota’s role within the team. Instead of leading the line, the majority of his minutes post-AFCON arrived in wide areas with Jurgen Klopp using him on both flanks. As a consequence of this, the goals dried up. He scored just five times across 1,151 Premier League minutes, though he did register five assists during that period too.

His last goal for the Reds arrived at the Eithad in the 2-2 draw in April 2022. Jota is without a goal in his last 25 appearances for Liverpool and this hasn’t gone unnoticed. Klopp’s side are struggling and his return from injury was supposed to be a boost, just as it was when he was back in the squad following multiple hamstring injuries earlier this season.

The former Wolves attacker was eased back in during September as Liverpool switched things up with their shape. Klopp opted for a 4-4-2 system and made the one-time Atletico Madrid youngster a key cog in his thinking. Jota was the second striker tasked with linking the midfield to the forward line.

It was a role that took him away from scoring goals and turned him into more of a creator. He assisted four of Salah’s goals in the Champions League and created Firmino’s goal against Arsenal.

He was arguably the Man-of-the-Match in the 1-0 win over Manchester City too, playing on the left side of a midfield four. In added-time of that game, he injured his calf and has only just returned to the first-team fold.

The worrying thing is that he doesn’t look anywhere near as sharp as he did upon his return in September. But this isn’t necessarily within his control.

Klopp has been forced to change things up again. Cody Gakpo arrived in January and has been used as a false-nine, with the German tactician reverting back to a system he had great success with.

To get minutes, Jota is having to play left-wing and though he spent the majority of his time with Wolves in that role, it doesn’t always get the best out of him. He exploded in red when used as a centre-forward. People are expecting similar performances, numbers and game-changing moments despite him being used in a different role within a different system as part of a new-look attack.

This has been the case ever since Diaz’s arrival though. The Colombian joined from Porto and immediately made the left-wing berth his own. As a result of this, Mane was used as a centre-forward and this limited Jota’s minutes and influence. He went from being one of the primary goal threats for the Reds to being one of the secondary ones. Yet expectations weren’t tweaked accordingly.

He couldn’t do all the things he was doing earlier on during the 2021/22 campaign because that was no longer his role. Likewise, it isn’t his role this time around either and yet fans are expecting him to have a similar output to that extraordinary, yet sustainable period prior to the Africa Cup of Nations.

It just isn’t possible but he’s still more than capable of having a positive impact on this team. If he’s able to shake off these injury issues and then continues his streak of assists, Liverpool will be all the better for it. Ultimately, though, this will all be dependent on how Klopp uses his No.20. He’s one of the most versatile forwards in the squad and can play a variety of roles well. That is why, even without the goals, he is one of the most influential members of this team. He just needs to stay fit.