Diogo Jota has become Wolves’ most important player in 2019
Diogo Jota has become the key player in an in-form Wolves team and the man Liverpool need to watch out for on Sunday, writes Adam Bate.
There have been many factors in Wolves achieving their highest league finish in 39 years. Raul Jimenez is the top scorer and Matt Doherty has been a revelation at wing-back. Ruben Neves continues to attract admirers, while Joao Moutinho has been even better.
Nuno Espirito Santo has pulled it all together to take Wolves to seventh and on the brink of Europe.
But ask any Wolves supporter and the one man who has really added impetus to their efforts has been Diogo Jota. He has been the key player during the second half of the season, scoring 10 goals and providing seven assists. His willingness to run at defences has added a new dimension, his sheer enthusiasm capturing the imagination of Molineux.
In the context of his Wolves career, this has been a continuation of what he had done in their Championship title win. Jota scored 17 goals on loan from Atletico Madrid last season, adapting quickly to English football by taking the knocks that came his way. Upon Wolves’ Premier League return, he was seen as a sure thing to succeed in the top flight.
That is what made his struggles during the early part of the season so difficult to understand. Even when Wolves won four games out of five in the autumn, drawing the other away to Manchester United, Jota was unable to make much of an impression. He knew the system and the position, on the left of a front three, but his tricks were simply not working.
Jota started the first nine games but did not score a goal or provide an assist. All he had to show for his Premier League adventure at that stage were three yellow cards. He was duly dropped and deservedly so, but when the next five games yielded no wins without him, including defeats to Brighton, Huddersfield and Cardiff, another opportunity emerged.
He was restored to the starting line-up the day after his 22nd birthday in a slightly more central role for the home game against Chelsea. It was the closest thing to a crisis that Nuno has endured at Molineux and it was Jota who popped up with the winner. Cue manic celebrations from the player. This was more than just three points. It was a release.
The turnaround was swift. Jota scored in another win over Newcastle just days later and provided assists in further victories over Bournemouth and Liverpool. By the time of the home game against Leicester the following month, it was a clear 3-5-2 and a partnership had developed between him and Jimenez. He scored a brilliant hat-trick in a dramatic 4-3 win.
Given that Jota had once scored a Champions League goal against the same opposition in a 5-0 win during his time at Porto, his pedigree should never have been in doubt. Confidence restored, he is now in the senior Portugal squad and will be hoping to be back at the Estadio do Dragao playing for his country in the Nations League finals next month.
Credit must go to his compatriot Nuno for the tactical switch that helped Jota make this leap. Allowing him to play that bit closer to Jimenez has been an essential element, freeing Jota up from some of the restrictions that came with his wide left role. He is still diligent enough in his defensive work, but now he is gaining possession of the ball in different areas.
Jota has found those pockets of space where he can be so dangerous – the half spaces where it is not so obvious who should be picking him up. If the centre-back steps up, he risks Jimenez exposing the space in behind. If the centre-back stays where he is, it allows Jota to run with the ball from deep, and he can be a difficult man to stop when in full flow.
This is a genuine front two, one that is posing problems that many Premier League defences appear ill-equipped to deal with – becoming accustomed to having a spare man at the back. The combination play between the pair has been unusually good, all intricate one-twos, first-time flicks and synchronised runs.
The two laid on a goal for each other in the 2-0 win against Cardiff in March and it was Jota who set up Jimenez for another vital goal against Watford last month. Indeed, the Portuguese has assisted five of his partner’s Premier League goals. That’s the most assists that any player has provided for another in the competition over the last five months.
Jota has matched Jimenez goal for goal since the turn of the year too. Given that many at Molineux rate the £32m fee paid to Benfica for the 27-year-old Mexican striker to be a bargain, what price for a player who is five years his junior and improving all the time? Jota might not be Wolves’ player of the season, but he has been their player of 2019.
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