Diogo Jota opens up on Cristiano Ronaldo’s advice after ending goal drought

Liverpool star Diogo Jota recalled his Portuguese captain Cristiano Ronaldo’s advice after scoring a brace in the team’s 6-1 mauling of Leeds United on Monday at Elland Road. Jota got off to a great start in the season but his progress was hampered by injury woes.

However, the Portuguese played a key role in the team’s win against Leeds United. Jota scored both of his goals in the second half after Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo had put the visitors in front.

The 26-year-old has played 14 matches in the Premier League this season and he has scored two goals (both coming against Leeds United) and he has provided four assists.

In fact, Jota had last scored for Liverpool in a draw contest against Manchester City back in April 2022.

In a post-match interview with Sky Sports, Jota likened Ronaldo’s advice of opening a ketchup bottle and finding form to open the floodgates – “When the first drop comes out, everything comes out”.

“That’s one of the sentences Ronaldo said and it really stuck in my mind all these years,” Jota explained. “I think football is unpredictable, and these are the things we like in this football game. Things can change very quick.”

“Yes and no” was Jota’s response when asked about whether the win at Leeds rekindles the Reds’ faint top-four hopes. “We have great results this season, great scorelines – 7-0, 9-0. So we have these results before but we just need to stick with our feet on the ground because the next one is a completely different game.”

Jota feels his team played really well in the second half as they scored four goals. In fact, the Reds took a total of seven shots on target and converted six.

“I think especially second half we played really well although we conceded that goal,” Jota said. “We kept possession a lot of the time, we tried to find ourselves in good positions. We scored great goals and deserved the win.”

“Some games we looked really good and others we cannot really click, especially away from home. But that is part of the past and what we can do is do things like tonight – improve, and do games like this because we are able to.”

Liverpool FC will next face Nottingham Forest on Saturday at Anfield.