Diogo Jota happy to take centre stage under Arne Slot

Liverpool forward Diogo Jota believes new head coach Arne Slot’s desire for him to feature more centrally plays to his strengths.

The Portugal international regularly found himself deployed as the left-sided attacker during the four seasons he had under Jurgen Klopp but he still chipped in with his fair share of goals.

In three of his four campaigns he scored 13 or more, and the season he registered only seven – 2022-23 – he missed four months with a calf injury.

Jota opened his account with a goal in Saturday’s win at Ipswich, where he started as centre-forward due to Darwin Nunez’s lack of pre-season minutes after his Copa America involvement.

“It’s obviously a bit different from Klopp where I maybe was useful out wide,” Jota told the club’s website.

“I think here he (Slot) wants our wingers a lot more in one-v-ones and I think we have better options than myself.

“If I stay in the middle and wait for those chances to come in and score them, I think that is what I do the best so you can take that into the season.”

What will undoubtedly make more of a difference to Jota – and Liverpool – will be remaining fit as he has been plagued by injuries for much of his stay at Anfield.

He was ruled out for three months with a knee injury in his debut season and in the last two years has been absent for 47 of 110 matches (43 percent).

But he had 14 goals to his credit by mid-February last season until another injury saw him miss three of the final five months.

Portugal’s early exit from Euro 2024 allowed him to have a longer pre-season than some of his team-mates and that has presented the opportunity to impress Slot, who had a fully fit squad to choose from at Portman Road.

The first half proved a test against the newly-promoted side but an improvement after the interval saw Liverpool secure a comfortable victory.

“I think we are still adapting to the way he wants us to play and (against) a newly-promoted team it’s never easy,” he added.

“We end up with a clean sheet and three points so I think building on top of the wins is always a lot easier.”