The latest Liverpool news as one Reds player has been speaking about his future away from the club while on international duty despite a strong start to this season
Diogo Jota displacing Darwin Nunez in the Liverpool starting line-up last season under Jurgen Klopp and remaining there under Arne Slot has been one of the team’s fundamental changes this year. Despite both starting against West Ham United at Anfield in the Carabao Cup third round, it has usually been one or the other.
Nunez has only started three times this season, while Jota has barely begun games on the bench, doing so just twice. Speculation about the former’s future arose during the summer, but sticking around could pay off in the long run.
That is because his teammate is open about wanting to play in Portugal again one day. However, he acknowledges a departure is nowhere near imminent.
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“I would say that returning doesn’t make much sense now, but I wouldn’t rule out the possibility in the future,” Jota said during a press conference on Thursday. Despite being a Portugal international, he played barely 80 games in the country across spells at Pacos de Ferreira and Porto before joining Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Jota explained: “It will depend on my level and the combination of factors that have to come together. At this stage, I would say that in the future, I would like to return”.
While he is now the “main man” up front at Liverpool, Ian Wright believes Nunez would be a “massive problem” for opposition defences if the Reds were ever to get him “firing.” On the Wrighty’s House podcast, he asked: “Can you imagine if Nunez could score consistently?”
Wright, however, concluded: “I’ve seen enough of him now. I thought, at some stage, it would click for him, but it’s not clicked in for him. If it clicked in for him, Liverpool are definitely, easily (Premier League title) favourites.”