Liverpool were left with plenty to ponder after struggling to a 2-1 win over Wolves on Sunday.
The Reds had been expected to comfortably dispatch their visitors before embarking on a run of three tough fixtures inside eight days.
However, with games against Aston Villa, Man City and Newcastle on the horizon, Liverpool made much harder work of Wolves than they should have.
It didn’t have to be that way, though. With nine minutes on the clock in the second-half and with the Reds 2-0 up, Diogo Jota had the perfect chance to kill the game.
After doing well to take Ryan Gravenberch’s through ball into his path and side-step the flying challenge of Emmanuel Agbadou, Jota had only Jose Sa to beat.
Instead of slotting the ball home for 3-0, though, the Liverpool forward threw himself to the ground without any contact at all. Arne Slot had a right to be furious with Jota after seeing the momentum instantly swing in the game. And as it turns out, the No.20 is not a first time offender.
Alan Shearer comments come back to bite Diogo Jota
January 1st 2024 seems a long, long time ago. Jurgen Klopp was still Liverpool manager for one, and the German was yet to even drop the bombshell of his impending departure from Anfield.
All was well with the Reds, but after blowing Newcastle away 4-2 on home turf, Jota was subject to criticism from Alan Shearer.
Shearer called Jota ‘f—— embarrassing‘ after the Portuguese had gone down for a penalty under minimal contact from Martin Dubravka, despite being clean through with the goal at his mercy.
Ian Wright agreed, taking to X to back up his old England teammate.
READ MORE: Liverpool slammed for ‘unprofessional’ behaviour against Wolves as Frank Leboeuf goes in hard
“Would rather go down for a penalty than put the ball in an empty net! Seen it all!” Wright posted.
At the time, while the contact was not a lot, it did look as though Dubravka had just clipped Jota. But after seeing him take a tumble against Wolves, now we’re not so sure.
Jota needs to cut out needless diving
While it may seem harsh to come out against Jota here, we really would love to see him stop this kind of unnecessary risk-taking.
“Would I rather put the ball in the net than see Mo take a penalty? Yes, of course,” the £45m man told the Liverpool ECHO in response to Shearer last year.
“That’s what I like to do, to score goals. That’s all I have to say.”
However, there is little excuse for what we saw against Wolves. Jota had a clear chance to kill the game and ensure a smooth second-half for Liverpool. For whatever reason, he chose to pass that up.
It did not come back to bite Liverpool this time around, but in a title race these things can be the difference. It cannot happen again.
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