‘That’s what I do best’: Jota on playing striker under new Liverpool head coach Slot

Liverpool, Aug 19 (IANS) Liverpool forward Diogo Jota has been playing across the front three ever since joining Liverpool in 2020. However, with the team’s striker Darwin Nunez being left on the bench, the Portuguese was asked to play up front against Ipswich.

New head coach Arne Slot’s decision to play Jota in the striker position certainly paid off as the former Wolves forward scored the Reds’ first goal of the Premier League season. Jota has now stated that playing the central role is ‘what he does best.’

“It’s obviously a bit different from [Jurgen] Klopp where I maybe was useful out wide. I think here he [Slot] wants our wingers a lot more in one-v-ones and I think we have better options than myself. If I stay in the middle and wait for those chances to come in and score them, I think that is what I do the best so you can take that into the season,” said Jota to LFC’s media team.

Ipswich Town, the team playing their first game in the top tier of the English football pyramid in over 22 years, started the game with much higher intensity than the Merseyside outlet and caused a few scares in the Liverpool half.

However, despite the early slip-ups, Liverpool came to life in the second half and went on to score two goals in the span of five minutes through Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah which knocked the wind out of the Ipswich attack.

Arne Slot will now look to prepare for his first Premier League game in front of his home supporters at the famous Anfield Stadium on Sunday against Brentford.

“It’s massive. I think we are still adapting to the way he [Slot] wants us to play and coming here to a newly-promoted team, it’s never easy and we end up with a clean sheet and three points so I think building on top of the wins is always a lot easier,” he added.

–IANS

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