“Nine games, nine finals, I believe we can do it.”
Diogo Jota’s words after an immense victory at Arsenal were as direct as they were surprising…because no one at Liverpool rarely talks beyond the next game, never mind the end of the season. Yet if he has every right to express such belief - Jurgen Klopp’s team after all have won nine straight Premier League games to close the gap to Manchester City at the top from 14 to a single point - then there is a reason for it, beyond momentum and confidence.
Jota himself is very much part of that reason…one of five reasons, in fact. A truly formidable front five. Because if Liverpool can allow themselves to now start addressing the unthinkable - outgunning City on the title run-in - it will be because they can match the Champions in the single most crucial area.
Squad depth. Over the past decade, the Manchester club have had by far the best record in the last two months of the season for a good reason. Their squad is so much better than any other rival. Even in the season where Liverpool beat them to the title, 2019-20, City had a better record over the last 10 games.
And while that may be because the Reds had the Premier League already sewn up, some believe Klopp’s side were showing signs of real fatigue by the end of February, when they lost to Watford. At Arsenal this week though, a vibrant Jota scored and was immediately replaced by Roberto Firmino, who also scored a sublime goal and looked every bit an influential figure to shape the title race.
It makes Klopp’s side formidable. They now have a front five who are arguably better even than City’s forward line. But they in fact have a front seven, with Taki Minamino and Divock Origi also making important contributions in the pursuit of a quadruple. As Jota himself said after being substituted so early at the Emirates: “Having such a strong forward line is massive.
“It allows us to rotate a little bit more and have that extra energy that we need, because we play every three days. We are in all competitions, we have a lot of games and everybody will be important. So, it’s exciting days.” This is the reason for Jota’s uncharacteristic excitement. He knows Liverpool can’t out-gun City with just the three forwards who started virtually all the games in the title winning season: Firmino played in all 38, Mane 35 and Salah 34.
This time it is different. With the arrival of the exciting Luis Diaz, Firmino has started just three of the games in that remarkable nine-match Premier League winning streak. Klopp has used Jota, Mane and Diaz as his ‘number 9’, as his pivot for the attack, whose role is so crucial in providing the platform for the ‘wide’ players to produce their staggering numbers.
Yet when it came to it at Arsenal when his side struggled for an hour, it was Firmino he turned to, alongside his other two go-to players in that now famous Liverpool front three. And he delivered. The Brazilian in fact, looks as fresh and bright as at any time during his Anfield career, and his stats show it. On Sky this week, Gary Neville did a feature on the work-rate on the two main strikers from the top six.
No prizes for guessing who headed the table. Firmino has covered 11.7km per 90 minutes this season, and produced a remarkable 20.4 sprints per game. Only Edinson Cavani - who rarely plays - and Phil Foden have got remotely close. It is not just Firmino though, whose energy may prove crucial in matching City over these remaining “nine finals” in the most exciting Premier League title race since, well, 2018-19.
Jota has looked a little leggy recently, but Klopp has been allowed to rest him, and his goal showed his goalscoring form is returning. Mo Salah too, has perhaps dipped - ever so slightly - but was able to come from the bench with renewed energy on Wednesday. Mane has been on fire, and Diaz has been a revelation.
The stats tell a remarkable story. Liverpool have the top three scorers in the Premier League, in Salah, Jota and Mane. City only have Mahrez and Sterling in the lower reaches of the top 10. As Jota explained, Klopp will use all his strikers - and most likely Minamino and Origi too - with a Champions League and FA Cup quarter final still to come.
In the past, that would have undoubtedly handed a huge advantage to City, as we saw even in the title winning season, and the season before when Guardiola’s team closed an 11 point gap at the top to become Champions. Not any more. Klopp can also rotate in midfield and give key defenders a rest too, as we will no doubt see in the FA Cup this weekend. Hell, he even has a top quality back up keeper now.
Somehow, the German coach has built a squad that is inching closer and closer to Guardiola’s incredible depth of talent - which is surely the greatest football squad of all time. That is some achievement given his net spend over the same period is less than a quarter of his great managerial rival.
There are challenges to come of course - keeping everyone in the summer will be a difficult task, and contract negotiations with his long time front three are going to be difficult, if not impossible. Yet that is for the end of the season. For now, Firmino’s performance, aided and abetted by Jota, at Arsenal is proof enough that Liverpool now have not just one front line, but two, capable of keeping them in the title race.
And that makes Jota’s comments far less excitable than first seemed.
