Liverpool saw off neighbours Everton to make it a happy return to the Premier League, having missed last weekend’s action due to an early FA Cup exit, one week on from the March international break.
Candidly, the break came at the right time for Arne Slot’s side, whose imperious campaign suffered its most bruising blows in succession, a miserable week seeing Paris Saint-Germain advance in the Champions League before Newcastle United deservedly beat the Reds at Wembley to lift the Carabao Cup.
Slot, for all his brilliance, seems reluctant to enforce changes to his tried-and-tested starting line-up, but Liverpool have paid the price for such stubbornness after falling in each of the season’s competitive offshoots.
Victory against Everton was paramount. Anfield’s advantage at the top of the Premier League may be imperious at 12 points, but psychologically, recent setbacks required a bounce-back.
And bounce back Liverpool did. Curtis Jones, whose tactical dynamism seems to know no bounds, impressed in a moonlit right-back berth, but the biggest winner may well have been Diogo Jota, breaking his duck to expertly net the sole goal of the match, inching his team one step closer to the title.
Diogo Jota's performance vs Everton
It was a big night for Liverpool’s frontline, whose struggles since the turn of the calendar year have been scrutinised by pundits and online supporters alike.
Mohamed Salah
18 (18)
12
5
Cody Gakpo
14 (9)
5
1
Luis Diaz
19 (16)
1
3
Diogo Jota
15 (10)
3
1
Darwin Nunez
17 (4)
3
4
Federico Chiesa
5 (2)
2
1
Jota needed that goal. He’d gone 11 matches without scoring across all competitions for Liverpool and was spiralling toward a bleak end to the season, but he struck gold at the perfect time, adding his name to an illustrious list of derby-day heroes.
Dissenters online felt Luis Diaz was in an offside position in the build-up, but given that he wasn’t interfering with play and made no attempt to meet the ball, the official green-lit Jota’s well-taken goal.
It was a timely reminder that Jota, in spite of his recent woes, is a deadly man to have in the final third. Indeed, it was only last season that Jamie Carragher proclaimed the Portuguese to be “the best finisher” Liverpool have had in the Premier League.
Obviously, we’ve been treated to ‘better’ strikers in Red, but in terms of pure ball-striking ability when in space in the danger area, Jota’s one of the best for sure.
His balletic skip past Tim Iroegbunam, the shimmy to second-guess Everton’s meaty central defenders, the finish. Simple yet sublime. Jordan Pickford dove to Jota’s right, but Pickford’s dive was wrong, for Liverpool’s centre-forward deftly placed the ball leftwards, into an empty net.
The 28-year-old will now look to build on his performance. Make no mistake, Jota has been well below par in recent months, last scoring a goal against Nottingham Forest in mid-January. His prolific Liverpool career has been punctuated by injuries, and this term has been no different, Wednesday’s clash marking only the tenth top-flight start of the season.
This is particularly damning when considering Darwin Nunez has also failed to nail down a berth, leaving Slot to devise alternate measures.
Well, Jota will want to build, but Slot must now seek to implement another outside-the-box strategy to avoid late-season burnout and keep things fresh.
Having showcased his adaptability by fielding Jones at right-back, Liverpool’s boss should now place another of his troops in a fresh position.
Liverpool flop should be unleashed in new role
Slot might have a preferred starting line-up, but Liverpool have hardly been rigid in their football this season, playing in a myriad of different ways to get the job done.
Jota of course will want to use the win over Everton as a launchpad for a purple patch over the next two months, steering Liverpool over the finish line, but there’s little question that he’s been out of sorts recently. In fact, he was rather off the boil in the opening half.
That’s why Slot might want to unleash Federico Chiesa from a focal striking role over the coming weeks. Signed from Juventus last summer on a cut-price £12.5m deal, the versatile forward has endured a tough term in Liverpool.
Injuries have wrecked Chiesa’s development over the past several years. So impressive at Euro 2020 when Italy defeated England in the final to clinch gold, with a horrendous anterior cruciate ligament injury affecting the 27-year-old’s 2021/22 and 2022/23 campaigns.
The current campaign, a new chapter at Anfield, presented a clean slate for a talented player who has been described as a “wizard” by football media personality Roger Bennett, owing to his technical quality and fleet-footedness.
Moreover, the £150k-per-week star is a natural finisher, something that was perfectly illustrated by his late consolation goal at Wembley two weeks ago.
Chiesa was ostensibly brought in to cover Mohamed Salah at right wing, but given that he played the lion’s share of last season as Juventus’ striker, scoring nine goals and laying on three assists from 31 central appearances, Slot may well look to boldly drop Jota for a summer signing who is still waiting for their first Premier League start.
To be sure, he’s gifted enough to play a bigger role. As per FBref, Chiesa ranks among the top 1% of forwards across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for shot-creating actions, the top 5% for progressive carries and the top 8% for tackles made per 90.
Shot-creating actions are pieces of play that lead to a shot. These include moments such as a pass, take-on or foul being drawn.
Though Liverpool would need to craft the mother of all collapses to cede first place to Arsenal, Slot will demand maintained standards from his men, and Chiesa’s increased involvement might be the perfect way to achieve this.
Time is running out for the Italy international to widen the scope of his maiden campaign in English football, but there’s no doubt he’s shown flashes of exciting quality and allowing him to prove his worth over the next few weeks could make all the difference in his longer Liverpool career, even if that means returning Jota to the bench at some point soon.
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