Diogo Jota: "It's Good To Get This Rhythm Back"

Yesterday at 04:30 PM

The Portuguese striker is making his return from injury and working towards being able to contribute for the rest of the season.

Diogo Jota is working on making his way back into the starting XI after a lengthy spell nursing an injury, and he wants to be ready to contribute to the second half of the season as Liverpool stake their claim for the Premier League title. Jota was named to the starting squad for Saturday's third round FA Cup match against Accrington Stanley, and even opened the scoring for what would end up a 4-0 scoreline.

Accrington Stanley made the match interesting with some tricky set pieces, but the Reds made the most of it, including giving another youngster a debut to remember.

"Obviously in the beginning they believe they can come here and do something [with] one or two set-pieces. [They were] dangerous," Jota told the club website.

"We ended up scoring in a transition of one. [It's] always important to get that first goal and I think in the end we did our job; clean sheet, four goals and most importantly the next round."

The match also saw Darwin Núñez and Jota playing together in a rare partnership, as Jota got a full 90 minutes on his legs for the first time in a number of months.

"First 90 minutes in a very long time! It's good to get this rhythm back and to build up for a very important second half of the season," the forward added.

"Obviously [Darwin and I] try to speak to each other... there's not many times where we've been together at the same time on the pitch. So, I think there were things to work on, but it was a good beginning."

In addition to Jota making a triumphant return, we had a debut from academy student Rio Ngumoha and summer signing Federico Chiesa opening his account with the Reds. While we as fans haven't seen much of either player for various reasons, Jota has spent his time in training with them and knew exactly what they could both offer.

"We know about [Rio's] ability to go one-v-one. We tried to give that space to him. I think their team knew as well and they double and tripled up sometimes, which was not easy," Jota explained.

"But he's such a young lad and making his debut is obviously a special day for him. I hope he enjoyed it and he'll only get better. It's a special day for him. He's been with us but competing is always a bit different, especially here with a full crowd. Obviously it's a remarkable moment for him and one he'll remember forever."

Chiesa had the pleasure of scoring the fourth goal for Liverpool on the day, and with a busy list ahead of us as the tournaments all return, that kind of form can only be welcomed. Especially with a quick turnaround this week as we face Nottingham Forest (cue Arne Slot annoyance) on Tuesday.

"Everyone is very happy for [Federico]. Obviously he didn't have much game time since he arrived, but we can see every time he's on the pitch he looks dangerous. He can score and luckily for us and for him he did that today. It's another one to build up," the Portuguese man continued.

"That's what we want. We want to be in all competitions. That means that we are going to play every three days pretty much. We are used to that already – just game, recovery and then we go again."