We look at what the Reds’ new signing — no, the other one —
brings to the table.

After nearly two years of barren transfer windows, we have grown
torpid and indolent here at the air-conditioned, laptop-riddled TLO
scouting offices. Expecting the Reds to continue their course of
only signing 17-year olds with a half-dozen senior games, we did
not expect to have to put together a proper report until after
Christmas at the earliest.

Alas, Liverpool have had the wool pulled well and good down
over our eyes, and after extending the Thiago transfer saga for
three months, went ahead and sneakily announced another imminent
signing all of twenty minutes later. Just no concern for our lapsed
Excel-subscription. How rude!

Here, then, is our take on Diogo Jota.

Diogo José Teixeira da Silva

AttackerDOB: 4/12/96 (23 years old) | Height: 5’10”
(178cm)2019/20 season: 48 appearances16 goals | 6 assists

Strengths: Do you like Liverpool’s current wide
attackers? Then you’re probably going to enjoy the Diogo Jota
experience. While the 23-year old doesn’t possess quite the
electric straightline speed of Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah, his other physical attributes
are strikingly similar, using deceptive strength to hold off
defenders — both when shielding the ball and running with it at
pace — and outstanding balance to keep his feet under him as he
weaves his way through traffic. His close control is also
excellent, and getting the ball off him without conceding a foul
has proven exceedingly difficult, with the Portuguese racking up 3
successful dribbles and 2.4 fouls awarded per 90 minutes last year,
both more than any Liverpool player.

Also similar to his future teammates is Jota’s penchant for
getting on the ball inside the area despite nominally starting in a
wide position. Whether carrying the ball or making a run within the
frame of the goal to receive it, the former Atlético Madrid man
will cut inside and look to make a game-changing difference in the
box. His 6.1 touches in the opposing area — while not quite as many
as the Reds’ current front line — was more than any other Wolves
player, and indicative of his importance to a side that generally
looked to attack in transition rather than create sustained spells
of pressure around the penalty area.

He gets in among the shots as well, putting up 3.5 shot-creating
actions per game, again more than any other Wolves player, dead
even with Mané and Salah. Naturally, this leads to excellent
expected goal and assist numbers, and Jota racked up 0.53 xG+A last
year — you guessed it, the highest of any Wolverhampton Wanderer —
and good for fourth compared to his new team-mates. With 84% of his
shots taken from inside the area, the Portuguese attacker is very
prudent in his shot selection, and will rarely waste possession
chasing a speculative effort. In fact, Jota’s underlying attacking
numbers at Wolves are remarkably

The Gondomar youth product is an eager presser from the front as
well, generating 22.6 pressures on the ball carrier per game last
year, second only to Naby Keita on the current Liverpool roster,
and although his success rate is a little lower than one would
ideally prefer, it is entirely reasonable to chalk a lot of that up
to Wolves’ press simply not being as effective as that of Jürgen
Klopp’s Reds.

Among his more intangible attributes, Jota appears genuinely
two-footed, and among the 500-odd players to appear in the Premier
League last year, only 14 used both feet more interchangeably than
the Wolves man, as a full third of his passes and shots were made
with his left foot. He seems nearly impervious to injuries as well,
and has only once missed more than two games in a row once during
his time in England, suffering a hamstring injury halfway through
the 2018/19 campaign.

Finally, Jota can bring the ball forward. With 230 yards of
progressive carries per game, the 23-year-old ranked eighth among
midfielders and attackers in the Premier League last year, and
coming into a Liverpool side that has largely struggled to progress
the ball up the pitch without passing it if Naby Keita isn’t
playing, this skill could be extremely valuable in unbalancing
opposition defences.

Weaknesses: Although 16 goals over two seasons
isn’t a bad tally for a wide attacker in a counter-oriented team,
it is quite a bit lower — 25%, in fact — than the underlying
numbers predict. There is an ongoing discussion in the stats
community about whether finishing is a technical skill and, if so,
how one would go about determining where on that spectrum a player
would fall, but, if it is, then based on the output in his nearly
5000 Premier League minutes thus far, it could be that Jota simply
isn’t a great finisher. He regularly gets into great positions, but
even when he scores, he can seem a little hurried and too rarely
makes clean contact or decisively buries the ball in the
corner.

Similarly, for all the ball carrying and dribbling and getting
into the area, Jota doesn’t rack up many assists — again sitting
about 25% under his expected numbers — and a single key pass per 90
minutes is simply not enough for a player who gets on the ball in
dangerous positions so often. His new side are definitely willing
to push more players into the box — Wolves will rarely provide more
than two targets to aim for — so conditions should be better this
season, and while this could all be nothing more than a statistical
aberration, it is worth keeping an eye on.

In general, there are improvements to be made in Jota’s passing
range and accuracy, as 2.5 progressive passes and only 0.8 passes
into the penalty area — although both numbers are slightly amended
by the ball carrying — is simply insufficient at the very top
level, and the Anfield coaching staff will undoubtedly be looking
to improve this part of his game.

Summary: Michael Edwards has seemingly hit
another zinger here, trading £32M and a youth prospect — or £41M
plus £4M in add-ons if you only care about top line numbers — who
seemed an odd fit in the Reds’ system for an outstanding stylistic
match, brining in quality back-up to the front three while
improving the squad’s age profile in the process.

Diogo Jota is pre-peak, Premier League proven, and arrives with
the expectation that he is going to take another step in his
development — perhaps even entering the world-class category —
while the worst-case scenario is that he should be an excellent
squad player for the next half-decade.

What will the club cook up for us tomorrow, one wonders!