Diogo Jota on Forest win, getting back in the goals and 'incredible' Salah
Diogo Jota feels Liverpool's 3-2 victory over Nottingham Forest proves that belief is rising within the squad.
Mohamed Salah’s 70th-minute winner settled Saturday’s Premier League encounter at Anfield after Jota had twice put the Reds in front, before they were pegged back by Neco Williams and Morgan Gibbs-White.
Jürgen Klopp’s side are now unbeaten in their last four top-flight outings and have won two in a row, with Jota netting four times across those victories.
Post-match, the Portugal international offered his reaction to Liverpoolfc.com. Read the interview below.
On the game taking a while to come to life before becoming a thrilling contest in the second half…
Yeah, it’s always hard when you need to attack a low block with a lot of defenders and a lot of people around. We knew that set-pieces could be a real advantage for us today and from the beginning the ball was there [but was] just lacking the final touch that we got in the second half. And obviously their set-pieces were dangerous as well, especially throw-ins. They scored two, they had more chances as well, but in the end we got the win – that is the most important thing.
On the difficulty of combating Forest’s physicality from set-pieces…
Yeah, it’s always hard – ball in the box, first contact, you have the second and you don’t really know where it’s going to be. It’s always hard but I think it is something that we really need to improve because today they caused us troubles by those chances.
On Liverpool staying patient before the breakthrough arrived…
They are fighting for their lives, fighting for [to avoid] relegation. Of course they defend a little bit deep, they want to avoid us scoring and get those chances in set-pieces or in counter-attacks, so it’s always hard, never easy. But it’s important to win and in the end we did that in these last two matches, that is perfect.
On the Reds responding and showing resilience to battle their way to the three points…
Yeah, twice [we had to respond to equalisers]. I think that is important, that shows that the team is believing each time more in ourselves and that’s really important to take for the future.
On the importance of confidence for forwards and whether goals lead to more goals…
Yeah, I think so. I said that before the first goal, it’s always hard when it doesn’t come and arrive so easy, but then everything seems to flow and in the end it’s what we want.
On Salah moving up to joint-sixth in the club’s all-time top scorers list…
His scoring record is incredible! Even today I was telling Fabinho on the bench he always finds a way to score… he just finds a way every single time and that is why he is so important.
On the feeling in the dressing room after back-to-back wins following the fightback to draw with Arsenal…
It gives confidence to the team. We believe in what we are doing and against Arsenal the win was there for us in the end but unfortunately we could not take it. But it’s two in a row already and this is the only way we can fight to be in the highest position in the table.