Jurgen Klopp lamented the lengthy injury problems for Diogo Jota after his double helped Liverpool to a 6-1 over Leeds United on Monday.
Jota registered his first goals for 12 months in the Elland Road hammering as the Reds closed the gap on the top four to nine points with eight games left to play.
Portugal international Jota was sidelined between mid-July and early September at the beginning of the season with a hamstring complaint before a serious calf injury left him out for four months prior to his February return.
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Jota started slowly in the dismantling of Javi Gracia's men but gradually grew into the game before he scored his first goals since the 2-2 draw with Manchester City last April.
“Diogo was injured for too long, same as Lucho (Luis Diaz)," Klopp said. "That makes it tricky, Diogo was involved in a lot of top moments and won the ball and set up the first for Mo Salah, but you can see there is space for improvement. The rhythm is maybe not 100%.
“The front three played tonight - it could have been a completely different front three - but because of the way they defended tonight. They all can play football but we need to understand the defending starts there.
“I think the counter-pressing mode was set by Curtis Jones and Hendo (Jordan Henderson). It was absolutely top how they chased pretty much everything around the pitch. I didn’t remember a situation where Robbo (Andy Robertson) or Trent (Alexander-Arnold) had one-on-one situation as we were always moving. I liked it a lot."
Klopp was also able to reflect on a first appearance for Luis Diaz since October when he suffered a knee injury at Arsenal. The Colombia international was one of four changes in the closing stages as he returned after over six months on the shelf.
Klopp added: "It was super important that Luis is back. He is lacking rhythm which is normal, a bit of sharpness, that’s normal as well.
“He is in training sessions. You can’t get the final degree of sharpness so we now just try to help him by getting him step by step back in the team. Give him minutes. It’s nice to see him play to be honest. We missed him for so long. It was nice to see him involved again."
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