Jürgen Klopp: Diogo Jota's return is very important for us
Diogo Jota's return to fitness is a big positive for Liverpool to take into the final stretch of 2020-21, with Jürgen Klopp describing it as 'really important for plenty of reasons'.
The Portugal attacker made his return to action after almost three months out with a knee issue as a second-half substitute against Chelsea last week.
Jota then started the Reds' subsequent clashes with Fulham and RB Leipzig, playing the entire 90 minutes in the former and 71 in the latter.
Quizzed during his pre-Wolverhampton Wanderers press conference about the return of the 24-year-old, Klopp said: "He was a big miss, a big miss. I think the moment when he got injured he was in a really good moment, which always then makes the fact, which is already bad, that the player is injured even worse.
"What does he bring? His qualities. He can play up front in all three positions, he played all three positions for us and that is already really helpful. He can play them on a really high level, so he makes us stronger, which is really good.
"Now he is back and had to play the first game immediately [for] 90 minutes, which was definitely not planned and just happened in the game because of other things we had to do. That was then the reason why he played 70 in the second game.
"He was fine, he felt after the game OK, the next day he was a bit knackered and that's normal. Now he should be fine again. It is really important that we have him back for plenty of reasons."
Prior to sustaining the injury against FC Midtjylland on December 9, Jota had struck nine goals in 17 appearances for Liverpool following his transfer from Wolves in September.
Asked whether the transition into the Reds' first team is more simple for attacking players than defensive ones, Klopp said: "To find their feet properly, I would say, to the maximum extent, that takes time as well.
"But yes, you can throw in a striker or offensive player because a lot of these things are natural skills. If you want to involve them in all the patterns you have offensively then it takes a little bit longer, but as long as you accept that will not be the case from the beginning then you just can play an offensive player earlier, that's true.
"Defending is much more work-intense, you have to invest more work to make a team's defending. If you want to attack properly it needs a lot of work as well, but to attack only just to shoot the ball up front and run and follow it and score a goal, that can work from the beginning obviously.
"It always helps if you have time, but yes, Diogo didn't need a lot of time, but he had a little pre-season and then he came into a team which in that moment was in quite a good moment, that helped. He was lucky enough to have a perfect start, pretty much. That helps as well.
"You cannot compare one situation to the other, but for a defender it usually takes slightly longer."