The Reds are set to welcome back three key men from injury, but the biggest boost is the availability of their best finisher
Last Sunday's draw with Manchester United was a tough result for Liverpool fans to take. Dropping points at the home of your biggest rival feels bad at the best of the times – but when you're fighting for the Premier League title with two outstanding teams, well, that's a bitter pill to swallow.
Tuesday offered some solace, though, with the news that Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Diogo Jota had all returned to first-team training. All three are key members of Jurgen Klopp's squad.
Alisson makes the odd mistake because of his high-risk style, but has repeatedly come to the Reds' rescue since his arrival from Roma in 2018. Real Madrid, meanwhile, are said to be sniffing around Alexander-Arnold but the right-back's passing, crossing and versatility make him invaluable to his hometown club. However, it is Jota who has been missed most.
Alisson may be Liverpool's undisputed No.1 but Caoimhin Kelleher has done well in his absence (even accounting for his error against Atalanta on Thursday night), and while Alexander-Arnold will immediately make the Reds even more dangerous going forward, creating chances has not been an issue in recent weeks. The problem has been taking them – and that's why Jota's comeback could be so crucial.
GettyLethal finisher
There's probably not a Red across the world who didn't lament the absence of Jota as Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz wasted one opportunity after another at Old Trafford.
Salah is obviously one of the finest forwards English football has ever seen, and he salvaged a point with his nerveless late penalty against United, but the Egyptian hasn't been his usual lethal self during Liverpool's last four games.
Diaz and Nunez, meanwhile, combined for the opener, but both were guilty of characteristically erratic finishing on the day, while Cody Gakpo made no impact off the bench.
It was a similar story in the Europa League quarter-final loss to Atalanta. Nunez made an absolute mess of a through-ball, while Gakpo was painfully ineffective. Even Salah and Diaz proved utterly incapable of turning the game around when they came on.
The one positive on an otherwise horribly negative night was an energetic and encouraging 15-minute cameo from Jota, Liverpool's most efficient finisher.
AdvertisementGetty Images'Only one who can compete is Fowler'
Salah, Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen, Fernando Torres, Luis Suarez – Liverpool have had some incredible goal scorers during the Premier League era, so former defender Jamie Carragher caused quite the stir when he claimed in January that Jota is the pick of the bunch. The pundit even went so far as to say that "the only one who can compete with him is Fowler."
It was a bold statement, particularly when one considers that the striker Liverpool fans refer to as 'God' scored 120 times during his first stint at Anfield, but one could see where Carragher was coming from. When fully fit and firing, Jota is as clinical as they come.
He has better total shot and big-chance conversion rates this season (23.73 and 66.67 percent, respectively) than not only his Liverpool team-mates Salah (19.8%, 55.6%), Nunez (11.9%, 20.9%), Gakpo (16.3%, 36%) and Diaz (12.5%, 45%) – but also superstar duo Erling Haaland (20.3%, 33.3%) and Kylian Mbappe (22%, 44.7%).
Getty'Made for our style of play'
He also offers so much to Liverpool's game with his all-round play. Carragher pointed out that when Liverpool signed Jota from Wolves in 2020 for £41 million ($52m), "plenty of people were scratching their heads", but Klopp had been enamoured with the Portugal international from the first time he saw him play for Nuno Espirito Santo's side. The Liverpool boss knew he was "made for our style of play" – and he was spot on.
Jota immediately looked right at home at Anfield, scoring seven goals in his first 10 outings and turning sceptics into believers with his relentless pressing and awesome ability to play anywhere up front. Klopp was also bowled over by Jota's maturity and mental strength.
In terms of technique, tactics and temperament, he was just the perfect fit for Liverpool. His one weakness was physical.
(C)Getty Images'Knocks in each game'
Jota has scored 40 goals in 95 Premier League appearances for Liverpool. It's a decent tally – but it would be so much higher were it not for injuries.
Back at the start of February, when Jota was carrying Liverpool's attack in the absence of Salah, his manager revealed that the Portuguese was even more brittle than many people knew. "Diogo gets, in each game, knocks like crazy," the German told reporters. "If I go through the lists of medical reports I got over the years since Diogo is here, he’s in each and every one of them. And not as ‘injured’, just as ‘has a bruise’, ‘has a knock’, ‘has that’, ‘has that’. All after each game.
"On top of that, a couple of times he was out for absolutely too long; otherwise, his numbers would look completely different. You can see he is literally flying in the moment, everything looks light, looks fresh, looks explosive, and on top of that, as he always was, an extremely smart footballer."
Less than two weeks later, and just one day after being named Premier League Player of the Month for January, Jota got injured again.