Diogo Jota: Less Involved But More Involved
He's providing a handy guide for Darwin Núñez too.
Arne Slot has kept a very steady line-up across the opening stretch of his Premier League career. It won’t last; Jürgen Klopp used the same starting XI for the first two league matches of last season, then didn’t do so again.
It’s far easier to be consistent in selection when only playing once a week. You can’t blame Slot for sticking with the players he trusts most either. Making a good first impression upon a new league campaign is vital.
There has been much focus on Trent Alexander-Arnold being withdrawn before full time in every game. Yet Diogo Jota is the one other player to start all three matches without completing any of them, with not a word said about that. Different players, different status, different contract situations.
The headline statistics from Jota’s three matches show how he has delivered the three available output options: he scored at Ipswich, provided an assist against Brentford, and made no goal contribution versus Manchester United (on-ball; he directed traffic superbly for Liverpool’s opener at Old Trafford).
Reviewing the 27-year-old’s in-depth data highlights an interesting anomaly. Is it the quirk of a small sample or a massive signpost of what to expect from the central forward in Slot’s Liverpool team?
In all three games, Jota played somewhere between 71 and 78 minutes while having between 22 and 27 touches. The matches even rank identically on the two metrics, giving him minutes per touch figures of 2.9, 3.2 and 3.0 respectively.
This level of involvement is strange on several levels for the former Wolves striker. He had made just four appearances in which he played at least 71 minutes with no more than 27 touches before this season, yet has now done so for three games straight.
This means Jota has averaged 29.6 touches per 90 minutes in 2024/25, when his previous Premier League low was 41.7 in 2021/22. Despite this sizeable dip, he remains a vital cog for the Liverpool team.
Jota’s pressing remains ferocious. His match ranks for pressures in the Reds’ three matches are first, second (just one behind Luis Díaz) and first. The player famously described by Pep Lijnders as a "pressing monster” in 2020 has lost none of his prodigious work rate in the four years since. Based on the stats his pressure rate has actually increased in the tiny sample of this season, which could be an additional bonus from Jota putting less energy towards contributing to possession.
His involvement on the ball hasn’t been limited to his goal and assist either. The Liverpool number 20 played a part in the move for his side’s first three Opta-defined big chances in each of the first two games, taking the shot for three of them and playing the key pass for two. This gives him a direct involvement rate of 2.0 per 90 this term when that figure stood at 0.9 in the league last season, despite seeing his touch frequency decrease by 37 per cent.
Trying to analyse Slot’s Reds at this point is difficult as three games is too small a sample to prove anything. It seems deliberate to keep Jota less involved but ideally more productive though.
"It's obviously a bit different from [Jürgen] Klopp where I maybe was useful out wide," he said after the Ipswich match (via Sky Sports). "If I stay in the middle, wait for those chances to come in and score them, I think that is what I do best."
Jota’s history proves the point. It’s illustrated neatly by the below chart of his Premier League goals for Liverpool, taken from the the same article as his quotes. If you can get him on the ball in the centre of the penalty box, why would you ask him to go anywhere else?
Slot is implementing a strategy he used successfully in the past. Jota has averaged 75 minutes per match and 29.6 touches per 90 this season. Let’s use the former as a minimum, the latter as a maximum and use 2,300 minutes as a playing time benchmark to ensure a reasonable sample.
If you sort eligible forwards from 17 leagues by their goals plus assists per 90, Erling Haaland inevitably dominates. In joint-fourth alongside the Norwegian’s efforts from last season is the 2023/24 campaign of Santiago Giménez, Slot’s centre forward at Feyenoord when setting the club record for points won. The Argentinian scored 21 non-penalty goals while setting up six more, a fabulous return at any level.
The peak of Jota’s ‘heavily involved through light involvement’ play occurred in the Brentford match. He had just 22 touches, yet they included taking four shots and setting up two chances. Hitting those attacking marks from so few match actions is rare, with only 24 instances occurring in the last 2,690 Premier League games.
Giménez did this twice in the Eredivisie. Someone who has done it for Liverpool is Darwin Núñez, in his debut at Fulham in August 2022. Last month, Slot was asked about how he can get more out of the misfiring Uruguayan.
“Bring him as much as we can into scoring positions,” he said (via This Is Anfield). “But again, I think every individual benefits from team performance. If we, as a team, can bring our attackers – not only him, but also the other ones – as much as we can into dangerous positions, these players will score goals.”
Jota is proving Slot’s point by contributing more when being involved less. It’s a style which could light a fire under Núñez too. He faces a tall task to dislodge the current holder of the centre forward position though.
Good read Andrew.
It feels a little like where Klopp had a lot
of flexibility in terms of what positions he would utilise his squad, Slot likes a bit more structure.
We seem set up to have more of a clear two players for each position.
Diaz/Gakpo wide left
Jota/Nunez the presser/finisher
Salah/Chiesa wide right.
Szobo/Elliott as the ten.
Trent/Bradley right back.
Robbo/Tsimikas left back.
Maybe a little more flexibility on the centre back sides (Quansah, Gomez and Konate can all play both sides) and the double pivot in midfield, we will have to see how it pans out.
Gravenberch & Macca seems the first choice two with Jones first back up. Will be interesting to see if Morton can push ahead of Endo as he hasn’t gone out on loan or been sold and Endo probably isn’t in the long term plans. Also how many minutes Nyoni will get.
Great article, as always..
Find it really interesting to see the role Jota is playing.. all about his intelligent movement and pressing energy.
I hope since he is carry less and hopefully covering less ground at a full sprint this will benefit his fitness..
Excited to see the team progress as we have to rotate more.. I feel it’s got to be easier to build a bit of rhythm and cohesion starting with a consistent team, but excited to see the variety and competition that comes as the rest of the squad comes in to play..