Credit: Imago

Zak Anderton

Thu 27 February 2025 16:00, UK

Diogo Jota may have missed his chance to impress Arne Slot after his performance against Newcastle on Wednesday.

The striker has had an injury-riddled season thus far and hasn’t been able to prove his worth to the Dutchman since he took over from Jurgen Klopp.

Over the past couple of seasons, Jota has struggled with his fitness and while he’s often been fairly clinical when called upon, that hasn’t been the case this term.

Both Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz have often been chosen over him in the number nine role despite them both not being in the best forms of their careers either.

However, after his performance against Newcastle on 26 February, he may have missed a golden opportunity to prove his worth to Slot.

Jota performance against Newcastle in numbers

While the Portugal international has been a fan favourite for some time now, passion and work rate can only get you so far in a top-tier team, as Slot has made abundantly clear this season.

And, as per Sofascore, it seems like the former Wolves man once again failed to live up to expectations.

In the 62 minutes he was on the pitch, Jota only managed to have 23 touches of the ball and had no shots on target, despite being the focal point of the attack.

He generated an xA of 0.02 and failed to successfully complete any of the dribbles he attempted in the game.

Jota did, however, maintain a pass accuracy of 85 per cent and did manage to make one key pass.

Defensively, his performance wasn’t much better either as he only won 16 per cent of the ground duels he attempted and also lost possession of the ball eight times, which, for a player who wasn’t involved in the game that much, is rather poor.

Slot has difficult decision to make at striker

Even though Mohamed Salah has been in some of the form of his life this season, he alone can’t carry Liverpool to the Premier League title.

While the Egyptian King may have already contributed to 52 goals across all competitions for Liverpool this season, it would be nice to see one or two of his teammates other than Dominik Szoboszlai chipping in with a helping hand once every now and then.

One of the Reds’ main downfalls this season is that they haven’t had a natural number nine to lead their attacking line which is why it isn’t a surprise to see the likes of Nunez linked with an Anfield exit.

If Liverpool had a player who played at a similar level to someone such as Alexander Isak or Erling Haaland, they’d be close to unstoppable in every game.

But instead, they have Jota, Nunez, Diaz or Gakpo to choose from which, at the moment, is a fairly difficult call to make.