Jota does not deserve to start, says Liverpool legend
New Liverpool signing Diogo Jota does not deserve to start for them yet, according to club legend John Barnes.
Jota moved to the Premier League champions in a big-money move from Wolves this summer. The Portugal international joined Jurgen Klopp’s side in a deal worth around £45m.
Since he signed, he has made eight appearances for the Reds, but only three of these have been starts. But he has started in Liverpool’s last two outings.
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The forward has scored three goals so far, with two of them coming from starts in Liverpool’s games against Sheffield United and FC Midtjylland.
Jota still finds himself behind Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane in the pecking order. But Klopp has recently used a 4-2-3-1 formation which gets Jota into the starting eleven.
Despite his recent good form, Barnes told Bonus Code Bets that Jota is not ready to start yet:
“At this moment in time, Diogo Jota would not get picked ahead of one of the front three players, but he is pushing for a starting place.
“If he keeps going the way he has started the season, he will put pressure on the three starting attackers – it’s a good thing to have competition for places.
“Before this season, if one of the front three was to get a long-term injury then you would start to worry as Xherdan Shaqiri and Divock Origi weren’t good enough to replace them, but now with Jota coming in, I have full faith that he would come into the starting team and do equally as well as any of the current front three.
“His price tag of £45m, it doesn’t make any difference, whether he is sitting on the bench or starting. People can complain about a £45m player sitting on the bench, but if you were to put him in the team and drop Mo Salah, then you have an £80m player now sitting on the bench.
“If teams want a strong squad, that is the money that you have to spend to bring them in, so for me, his price tag is completely irrelevant.”
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