This article should really be called ‘The Diogo Jota Show’, or something to that effect. Liverpool scored 10 goals in the month of November, and if we disregard the penalty and own goal then five of the eight were scored by the Reds’ new Portuguese number 20.
But rather than focus on his quintet of goals in one section, we’ll stick to grouping goals together as appropriate. If you need a full reminder of the Goals DNA concept, Paul provided it in the opening article of the series, but essentially we’re looking at how Liverpool’s goals in the league and Europe have come about this season, which players were involved, and a whole variety of other minutiae regarding them.
Goals which had nothing much in common on the face of it might suddenly appear to have been separated at birth once they’ve been put through the TTT Supercomputer*. Let’s take a closer look at what occurred during November.
*Excel.
Atalanta 0-5 Liverpool
I don’t anticipate many matches from the 2020/21 season having their own section in these monthly round-ups. And the Reds’ handsome victory in Bergamo isn’t included as a standalone item purely because it features half of the goals from the month in question either.
No, this particular match is of specific interest because it features aspects of goals rarely or not seen anywhere else this season, but it also contained many important aspects of what has made the current Liverpool team the roaring success that they are.
There’s a goal which follows an opposition corner, and another which starts with Atalanta attempting a headed pass in Liverpool’s six yard box. The Reds’ only Opta-defined counter attacking goal of the season to date featured in this match, as did all four of their assist passes in 2020/21 which have been over 25 yards in length (a.k.a. ‘long balls’). Joe Gomez even set up one of the goals, to pick up his first assist for almost three years. It had everything, this one.
And best of all, there’s a goal which begins with a throw-in near the half way line. We’ll see another of those later in the piece too, but this one was far more direct: throw in, pass, clear-cut chance, goal. Atalanta were well and truly Grønnemarked on that one. That’ll teach them to be the only side in Champions League Group D who haven’t employed the Dane at some point, if nothing else.
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