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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
John Aldridge

Liverpool firepower now fits the bill but don't rule out Rhian Brewster return

I've not watched an awful lot of Diogo Jota but what I have seen, I've been impressed with.

He's quick, his delivery is very good, he can play in a number of forward positions and he knows where the back of the net is.

Don't forget a lot of his appearances for Wolves have come as a substitute so that paints a bit of false picture when it comes to his creative ability.

It might seem a lot of money to some people but Liverpool fans should trust the manager implicitly because look how many decisions he's got right.



If he believes Jota is worth that, with Ki-Jana Hoever going the other way, it could turn out to be a really good deal for Liverpool.

Our striking options are looking really good now. Mo Salah showed on the opening weekend he's as hungry as ever and Sadio Mane displayed what he's all about again at Chelsea.

I saw Jamie Carragher has compared him to the great John Barnes and I can certainly see where he's coming from.

John was the best player I ever played alongside, he was just frighteningly good.

We had fantastic creation in that side of the late 1980s with Peter Beardsley and Ray Houghton in the side as well as John and the likes of Steve McMahon and Ronnie Whelan who also contributed a lot as well.



John was remarkable but Sadio has just seemed to get better and better each year he's been at Liverpool and his mentality is as impressive as his football ability, which was summed up by his second goal when he was angry at his own error and made up for it by pressing the keeper and forcing the error.

Bobby Firmino did really well to create the first goal on Sunday and, even though he's still not quite at his best and looks a bit low on confidence, he came to life in the second half around the edge of the box with his little touches and flicks.

That second 45 at Chelsea will do him good, as I believe will the arrival of Jota because, as I said last week, that knowledge that there is now someone on the bench who could potentially take his place should be a good motivating factor for him to get a few more goals.

Quality back-up for the strikeforce is something we've talked about Liverpool needing for some time and it's great to see it in place now.

It will be interesting to see what it means for the other strikers on the fringe of the first team and, in particular Rhian Brewster, who is now being linked with a permanent move away from Anfield.



Many of these reports suggest that if such a deal happens Liverpool will have a buy-back clause in the deal and that's something I would certainly like to see as there's no doubt the lad is a goalscorer.

If he's not going to get games at Liverpool in the foreseeable future having seemingly now moved further down the pecking order, you can't blame him for wanting to move on.

It would be shrewd to have a buy-back option though because Liverpool are then covering themselves with a kind of insurance policy, having put years worth of training and development into the boy.

He seems to have a good attitude and really comes alive in the box, perhaps the one area of his game which is lacking is that he doesn't do enough outside the box which may be down to the way we play.

He's a bit similar to myself in that I didn't really get involved in too much outside the box whereas Rushie was more involved in the build-up play.

That might be why they've looked to the likes of Jota who can maybe replicate Firmino's link play better but these are aspects of Brewster's game that can develop should he move on.



I do think as a goalscorer the lad has every chance of being a success and who knows, if he does end up moving on, we could yet see him back in a red shirt again one day.

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