🦁 Premier League Player of the Week - The signing of the summer | OneFootball

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Dan Burke·24 November 2020

🦁 Premier League Player of the Week - The signing of the summer

Article image:🦁 Premier League Player of the Week - The signing of the summer

The Premier League returned from the international break with an interesting weekend of action.

It’s time to crown our Player of the Week …


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Diogo Jota (Liverpool)

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How do you improve on perfection?

That’s a question many clubs have asked themselves in the past, and the answer is never obvious.

Sometimes clubs add one too many superstars to their ranks and it upsets the applecart. Barcelona buying Antoine Griezmann is a recent example that springs to mind.

But sometimes a signing comes along that fits like a glove. Liverpool’s summer capture of Diogo Jota felt like a shrewd one at the time and so far, the Portuguese has wildly exceeded expectations.

His excellent header in Sunday’s convincing victory over Leicester was already his eighth goal in 12 appearances since his switch to Merseyside.

Furthermore, it was his fourth goal in four matches at Anfield this season. For comparison, that’s as many as Manchester City’s entire team in the Premier League.

Liverpool were without Mohamed Salah for that tricky test against Leicester but you’d barely have noticed because Jota can slot into any position along the frontline so well.

His hat-trick against Atalanta in the Champions League last month prompted lots of silly talk about whether Roberto Firmino’s days at Liverpool are numbered.

Jota is currently proving himself to be a more prolific goalscorer than Firmino but in this congested season, the need for options is greater than ever and Reds boss Jürgen Klopp surely has the most pleasant selection headache in the whole of Europe at the moment.

What does he do when Salah, Firmino, Sadio Mané and Jota are all fit and available? Well you can probably expect him to play a front four again, like he did against Manchester City a couple of weeks back. Good luck to anyone who has the misfortune of playing against that Fab Four.

“We are happy for him,” said Salah when he was asked this week how the other three feel about Jota’s form.

“As team-mates we are trying to push each other every day in training, so to see someone come in and score goals you feel also happy for him because you feel he is going to help your team and to make it easier for us up front.

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“Hopefully that will happen again and again and again. Scoring a few goals is a good way for him to start here maybe with confidence.

“To have someone else who can score goals is a great option for us. Now with Diogo we can play four together or we could still play three.”

The losses of Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez to injury felt like hammer blows to Liverpool’s title chances, but the arrival of Jota could well be what ultimately gives them the edge over their rivals again this season.

How do you improve on perfection? Sign Diogo Jota, that’s how.