Jurgen Klopp admits he wishes £45m Liverpool star had been playing vs Crystal Palace today

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Jurgen Klopp has bemoaned the absence of Diogo Jota for Liverpool’s win over Crystal Palace today.

The Reds just about got the job done at Selhurst Park, a late goal from Harvey Elliott sending them top of the Premier League table.

But things were a bit of a struggle for the most part, as Liverpool relied upon substitutes like Elliott and Joe Gomez to help them win the game. With that in mind, Klopp was asked during his post-match press conference whether he is now more reliant on his ‘squad’ options than ever.

“They’re very similar situations,” responded the Liverpool manager. “I don’t know exactly which was which season, but let me say we started with Fabinho, Henderson and Wijnaldum and then we had Milner and then Lallana the year before.

“Then we had Oxlade-Chamberlain and then we had Naby Keita and we had up front Shaqiri, Origi and Minamino; that’s what you need to make a difference.

“Now we have the quality again so that’s how it is. We would’ve had today if he wouldn’t have been injured Diogo Jota, which would’ve been super-helpful. That’s how it is. The boys have quality. That’s why they show it. It’s more the mindset. The bad thing about the amount of games we play is that it’s really tiring. It’s just like that.”

Klopp longs for Jota return

Today’s game is perhaps the kind of one where Jota’s presence in the Liverpool team is so vital.

The 27-year-old can often turn a poor performance into a good one within the blink of an eye. A notoriously good finisher, Jota can create something from nothing if the ball falls to him in the penalty box.

In fairness though, it wasn’t the kind of game where Liverpool really created all that much. Yes, Jota may have been helpful, but the Portuguese can often go missing in matches like this, too.

Possibly the main advantage of having Jota available is that he could ease the burden on the other forwards.

Right now, all three of Cody Gakpo, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz are struggling a little.

When Jota was fit, Klopp had more possibility to change things, try different combinations and mix things up a bit.

But at the moment, with Diaz and Gakpo in particular failing to have much impact, the manager doesn’t have a lot of scope to change things.

Thankfully, it doesn’t appear that Jota is all too far away now. Klopp confirmed in the week that the £45m man is ahead of schedule in terms of his recovery. There still hasn’t been any date put forward for Jota’s return, but hopefully it won’t be too long now.